One Universe Over
by steamfan
Summary: Rewrite! In an infinite number of alternate universes, two Starships named Enterprise meet. The meeting has vast consequences not only for the future of one universe, but for two crew members personally.
1. The Rift

Title: One Universe Over

Fandoms: Star Trek : The Original Series, first five years and Enterprise, first season

Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone from the Star Trek universes; past, present or future. I am merely borrowing them.

Summary: In an infinite number of alternate universes, two Starships named Enterprise meet. The meeting has vast consequences not only for the future of one universe, but for two crew members personally.

Warnings: In this story Kirk and Spock are bondmates, but this is only a plot device so that they can explain certain things to T'Pol and Trip. I personally hated the way the series 'Enterprise' took Gene Rodenberry's vision of Vulcans and their history and threw (nearly) everything that was cannon out the window. So meet the crew of the Enterprise NX-01, just one universe over!

Chapter One

Having an alien ship jump up from out of no where and take potshots at them was common enough for the bridge crew of the Starship Enterprise, NCC-1701 that they managed to take it in stride. While Captain Kirk and most of the rest of the bridge crew were caught up in keeping their ship intact and their crew alive, Lieutenant Uhura was trying to find a way to contact the other ship to find out just why they were attacking the Enterprise. "Why do they always do this? It just isn't logical as Mr. Spock would say," Uhura muttered to herself. She hated it when any group of people wanted to shoot first and talk later.

Her fingers danced over her comm board, trying frequency after frequency and getting no response. Finally she was able to hear something, although she wasn't able to understand it. She automatically hit record, simultaneously set her standard 'we're from the federation, we're peaceful explorers, please quit shooting at us' message to broadcast through yet more frequencies and began to try and figure out what it was she was listening to.

Down in engineering, Mr. Scott was hard at work keeping the Enterprises engines running and orchestrating repairs as needed. And they were needed. Whatever weapons their opponent was using, was giving his precious ship a beating. Shields were fluctuating all over the ship, circuits were fried here and there, and there was even a small hull breach. That was enough to send Scotty into a tizzy of curses originating from all over the federation and a few from outside it. He loved his ship like she was his own child and any damage to her was enough to tear at his heart.

Dr. McCoy and Nurse Chapel were keeping watch in Sickbay and preparing for casualties. There was absolutely nothing that the good doctor hated more than the senseless violence and injuries that people of all species inflicted on one another. When those in danger were the men and women who counted him as their personal physician, duty bound to tend to their every illness, injury and mental health he became even crankier than usual. Even as he made sure that his sickbay would be able to handle anything that was thrown at him and those under his command, he said a prayer for those who were as close as family to him. He didn't want to see any of them being carried in here today.

Up on the bridge, Mr. Sulu and Mr. Chekov were operating like the seamless team they were. They were hands down the best navigator and helmsman in Starfleet and best friends besides. While Chekov kept Sulu aware of where everything was and made sure that there was a path for Sulu to navigate, Sulu flew the ship and fired the ship's phasers every time he had an opening. They were so good as a team that one joker had actually asked if they were sure that it was their First Officer and Captain that were bondmates instead of the two of them. The two men had taken the jibe in the fun spirit it had been meant, mostly because they knew the difference. When Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock were working on a single project they were the two bodies, one soul that the Vulcan mystics spoke about.

As for the two famous bondmates, at the moment all they were concerned about was the safety of their ship and crew. "Fire photon torpedoes!" Kirk ordered as he was knocked around by the crash of weapons fire against the shields. He clung grimly to the sides of his command chair. It was an order that he had to give as the phaser banks needed time to recharge. He had no choice, but at the same time, that one order changed a great many more things than just who would win this particular battle.

The Enterprise's photon torpedoes were intercepted by a similar weapon from the other ship; but with one distinct difference. When the explosions occurred, they didn't rip into the ships. They ripped a hole in the fabric of space itself. Neither ship was able to turn away from the rip and sailed through, still exchanging weapons fire.

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The Starship Enterprise, NX-01 was simply completely and utterly minding her own business. Her warp 5 engines were shut down and even the impulse engines were at an idle. Simply put, she was dead in the waters of space waiting for Commander Tucker and his engineers to make the delicate adjustments that were needed to replace her Lithium crystals with Dilithum crystals. As far as anyone on board the ship could tell they were out in the middle of no where, doing not much of anything while waiting on the engineers so they could get going.

Commander Tucker had been given the crystals as a parting gift and thank you from an alien ship that they had just rescued the day before. The aliens had suffered from their ship running into a microsingularity. The results, while not completely catastrophic, had resulted in quite a few injuries including their Chief Engineer. Dr. Phlox had been very helpful in treating the wounded and Commander Tucker had been instrumental in getting their repairs organized. It turned out that the aliens had been running a training mission and in Engineering the only experienced officer had been the Chief. The crystals were the best gift that the Chief had felt it could give a fellow engineer. Commander Tucker had agreed and had been very vocal in persuading Captain Archer to let him upgrade his engines. It was only supposed to take a few hours and for the increased capacity, Archer had agreed.

Now as he sat in his command chair looking at the tear in space directly ahead of him, all Archer could do was silently cuss out a certain best friend and Chief Engineer. They couldn't move the ship to get out of the way and while the rip didn't seem to be moving, something was coming out of it. "ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!" he yelled as he grabbed the arms of his chair. Two ships, both larger than the Enterprise, came racing out of the rip, both of them firing some type of weaponry at each other. Archer could see the saucer section of one of the ships as it came directly at them. While it was all over in a matter of a few seconds, one thing was burned into Archer's mind. The lettering on the hull of the larger of the two ships, the one that had made a direct impact on them, was USS ENTERPRISE, NCC-1701.

Enterprise NX-01 was knocked away from the two battling ships by the impact. This action, although unintended by either party, placed the larger ship between the NX-01 and the ship it was battling. This turned out to be fortunate as the unidentified ship exploded within two minutes after emerging into the NX-01's universe. "Travis, tell me we've got impulse!" Archer called from where he had been thrown to the floor.

"Aye sir," Ensign Travis Mayweather called back as he simultaneously climbed back into his chair and used the impulse engines to stabilize the ship. The other Enterprise had taken the brunt of the explosion but did not seem to be in major difficulty.

"Status!" Archer called as he too returned to his seat.

"Impulse engines on line, we are holding stable," Ensign Mayweather said.

"Weapons offline," Lieutenant Reed said.

"Communications, partial," Ensign Sato said. "Internal is mostly alright, but external, well I think that I can get you audio Captain, but visual is out."

"Damage reports are still coming in," SubCommander T'Pol reported. "The smaller of the two ships involved in the altercation has been destroyed. The other has sustained damage, but I am unable to confirm how extensive. As for the," the Vulcan female paused uncertain what to call the tear in space, "aperture, it appears to be growing."


	2. Contact

Chapter Two

Captain Archer hadn't been the only one of the bridge crew to see the name of the other ship. Hoshi Sato had as well. So rather than getting the other Enterprise's comm officer confused as to who she was, the hail she sent was a simple, "Hey, you guys ok over there?" in English.

To say that Lieutenant Uhura was startled was an understatement. She, like the rest of her bridge crew, had known that they had hit another ship. But no one had realized that it was a Federation ship. "This is Lieutenant Uhura of the Starship Enterprise. We're fine for the most part." That was true. Other than a few minor hull breaches, things jarred out of alignment or shorted out all over the ship and a ton of minor injuries they were fine. In fact there was nothing that Scotty and his repair crews and Dr. McCoy and his couldn't handle.

She heard a slight giggle in a female voice that was trying to remain professional. "This is Ensign Sato, also of the Starship Enterprise, only we're the NX-01. So where does your Enterprise come from? By the way, my Captain has his hands full right now but I'm sure he's going to want to talk to your Captain as soon as possible." Hoshi signed off. This was going to be an interesting conversation. That Enterprise was huge, larger than anything Earth had been able to build to date. They had to have come from one of the colonies started by the old generation ships before First Contact.

The crew of the Federation Starship Enterprise considered temporal and spatial anomalies old hat. As explorers of uncharted areas they tended to run into them frequently. So it was with a sigh that Uhura turned to Captain Kirk and explained to him that she had received a hail from the Enterprise NX-01. The very first Starship built by Humans before the Federation was founded some ten years later and just over one hundred years in their past.

Kirk sat in his command chair and cursed. He hated temporal anomalies with a passion. He could feel his bondmate's agreement, although Spock was deep in his work figuring the anomaly out. "Mr. Chekov, help Mr. Spock figure out how to get us back to where we belong, hopefully without disrupting the timeline." That was always the biggest problem. The other was of course the damage that they had and that they might have done to the other ship. "Uhura, do we have visual communications?"

"No sir, audio only. Our systems are fine, but theirs are damaged."

Kirk nodded, that was to be expected. The first Enterprise hadn't had shields for quite some time after she had been launched. That would mean that while their shields protected them from a direct hit; the other Enterprise would not have had that advantage and would have taken the impact from the collision directly on their hull. He got up to walk over to Uhura's station but before he could get there Spock interrupted, "Captain we are not in our own universe."

Kirk switched directions mid-step and headed for the science station. "Tell me," he ordered.

"I have scanned the Enterprise NX-01. There is a .00001 variance at the molecular levels that indicates this is parallel universe."

"Great," Kirk muttered as he rubbed his eyes. "Not only have we been thrown back in time but also into another universe. At least we don't have to worry about messing up our own timeline. Keep working on our little entry point problem." Kirk knew that if that wasn't shut down, then they'd really be in a mess. "Uhura put me through to Captain Archer. At least, I hope its Captain Archer. With that small of a variance it should be this universe's version of him."

She nodded, "Aye sir. Ensign Sato said that he had his hands full at the moment but she was certain that he would want to talk with you as soon as he could." Kirk simply nodded and leaned against her station. There was nothing else he could do at the moment. His officers had everything else under control at the moment and he was too sore from being bashed around in his chair to wait sitting down.

Hoshi turned to Captain Archer after receiving Uhura's hail. Just like Captain Kirk, he too was standing by his ship's comm station and nursing a few bruises. "I have the Enterprise NCC-1701 on audio sir, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. Sorry sir, but we still can't get visual."

"That's fine Ensign, it isn't like we haven't done this before." He waited until she gave him a nod, "This is Captain Archer of the NX-01."

"This is Captain Kirk," Kirk responded. "Sorry to barge in like this, Captain but we really didn't have much of a choice. Our opponents didn't give us any warning. And as you can see, I hope, the combinations of our weapons had an unexpected effect."

"Yeah, that was kind of hard to miss," Archer said. Archer remembered what the rift had looked like as it had opened. "So if you don't mind my asking Captain, where are you and your crew from?" He hoped that they knew because he had never seen or heard of anything like that tear in space. From the look on T'Pol's face as she did her best to examine the phenomenon she hadn't heard of anything like it either.

"Well, if my Science Officer is correct, then we're from the next universe over in the branches of alternate realities. We're also from about one hundred years in the future from our Enterprise NX-01." Kirk hoped that wouldn't shock these people too much. He didn't know if they were even aware of the fact that alternate realities were real.

Archer turned to T'Pol in shock. "Is that even possible?" he asked.

T'Pol turned her scanners. While she was not able to confirm whether or not the other Enterprise was from an alternate universe, she was able to tell that there were Vulcans on board the other ship. In fact, not only were there Vulcans, there were also Andorians, Tellerites, and members of half a dozen other races that she recognized as well as another half a dozen life signs that she didn't. "Although I cannot confirm his assertion Captain, I can confirm that this Enterprise has a mixed species crew, including Vulcans, Humans and other races I recognize, has more advanced technology and personally sir, I do believe that we would have had a visit from a certain crewmember if they were from our timeline."

Archer grimaced. He too, did not enjoy visits from Crewman Daniels, who was a Temporal Agent. He really did not understand temporal mechanics and the intricacies of time travel. He also did not want to run into a situation that required that he learn more than he already knew. "Lieutenant Reed, have your people be on the look out for Daniels just in case."

Malcolm nodded and sent out the alert. His security forces didn't know why Daniels was so important, but they did know that he tended to show up when the stuff hit the fan, so to speak. They already had their orders when it came to him.

Archer once more turned to Hoshi. "Ok Captain. My Science Officers says that it's possible, so I'll take your word for it. How badly damaged is your ship? I seriously doubt my engineering teams have the technical know how to help yours with repairs but we do know where you can get supplies if you need them."

"Thanks for the offer, but my Chief has repairs under control. I would like to offer crews to help with your repairs though. After all, we were the ones who hit you," Kirk offered.

"That sounds like a great idea to me Captain," Archer replied. "Would you like join them in coming over? I have had enough experiences with time travelers to know not to ask if I can join you on your ship."

Kirk laughed at the annoyance that could be heard in Archer's voice. He too had far too much experience with time travel. "The good news here is that since we're from another reality, we can throw that rule out the air lock. Send Lieutenant Uhura your transporter room coordinates and she'll send you ours. When the engineering crews have finished beaming over, then you can come over here. Does that sound alright?"

"That sounds like a fine idea," Archer said making sure that Kirk didn't hear the spiders crawling up and down his spine at the idea of casual use of the transporter. "Archer out. Don't start Lieutenant," he waved at Malcolm without turning around. "I know and I won't go over there without you." 'Sometimes it sucked to be the Captain,' he thought. But the rules were the rules and although what evidence they had said that the other Enterprise was friendly, didn't make it so. They had learned that much over the last six months.

Malcolm nodded and thanked God silently that his Captain was finally beginning to realize that security was important. "Yes sir," he said and sent the message to his second that he and the Captain would be leaving the ship while repair crews would be sent over from the other ship. "Let's hope we don't end up regretting this," he whispered to himself. Then he started running the things that could go wrong through his mind. He needed to be prepared for every eventuality.


	3. Meeting Face to Face

Chapter Three

It turned out that Captain Kirk was among the first members of his crew to transport over to the NX-01. But the first one off the transporter pad was neither the Captain nor a repair tech. He was a doctor if Archer was to guess as the first thing out of the Human man's mouth was a demand to know where the sickbay was. He was loaded down with equipment and the man and woman who followed him (both Human and wearing the same color blue tunics as part of their uniform as the doctor was) were loaded down with large boxes. "Malcolm," Archer snapped out and ordered him to take the man down to sickbay with a toss of his head. There was no way that he was going to turn down medical help, especially medical help that was much more advanced than what was available to Phlox.

"This way sir," Malcolm wasted no time. He too understood what a difference a doctor from a hundred years in the future could do. And right now Phlox needed the help. Although they did not have heavy casualties, there were several crewmen who had been seriously injured when bulkheads had crumpled with the impact. That part of the ship was sealed off now and had most of the engineering crew working on repairs.

While Archer and Malcolm were busy, another man came directly up to Trip. "Commander Tucker, I'm Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer. You can call me Scotty. Our scans showed that your engines are off line as well as the damage we did to your lass's hull. The next group over are hull specialists. They'll have her hull fixed as fast as is mortally possible."

"Call me Trip," he said as he shook hands with the other engineer. "Are you sure your ship is going to be alright without you? Not that I don't welcome the help, but I don't want to pull you away if your ship needs you." He was going through the motions even as he made the offer because he already knew the answer. He knew that look on a man or woman's face. The man was itching to get his hands on Trip's engines. His mother might have raised him as a gentleman, but his father was the one who had raised the engineer.

"Ach," Scotty waved the politeness aside. "All we've got to do over on my lass are a few run of the mill repairs. Now, an off line engine from another universe, that's a challenge!" Grinning in complete understanding the two left the transporter room and Archer heard Trip call down to Engineering for a guide for the repair crews that would be transporting momentarily.

Shaking his head at how quickly the room had been emptied of four of the six people transported, Archer turned back to the two men who were left. Both wore the black boots and pants that seemed to be the standard for the uniforms these people wore but while one wore a blue tunic similar to the doctor and his two people, the other wore one in a gold color. The one in gold was Human; the one in blue was Vulcan. Archer wondered who they were. "I'm Captain Archer," he said as he held out his hand to the Human.

"I'm Captain Kirk and this is my First and Science Officer, Mr. Spock," Kirk said as he shook Archer's hand.

"Welcome on board," Archer said and nodded to Mr. Spock. He never could get his hand around the sign native Vulcans used to greet and say good bye to one another, but he had learned that a polite nod could work as well.

As they greeted each other, the engineering ensign assigned as a guide to the 1701's repair crew entered the room. Just after the woman entered the room at a run, the first repair crew transported over. The inevitable shuffling happened, the repair crews heading for the damaged decks and Archer taking Kirk and Spock up to the situation room. None of the men were surprised to find T'Pol there and waiting with both the casualty and damage reports.

While Kirk and Archer were prepared to settle down and go over the reports, Spock did something that surprised the rest of the group. He greeted T'Pol as a member of his immediate family. Although she was surprised at his actions, T'Pol returned the greeting, crossing her hands at the wrist and pressing her palms to his. The contact was enough for both telepaths to learn that they were of the same family, within the same bloodlines and clan. It also gave Spock information that T'Pol would need to know if she was to survive. It only took a moment for him to share the information with his bondmate. Kirk gave Spock the faintest nod to tell him that he would come up with something before the small group dove into learning as much as they could about the current situation.

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While their scientific and engineering crews were so busy, Captains Kirk and Archer were sitting in the Federation's Enterprise mess hall having lunch. They knew better than to get in their officers' way. "A federation of different planets structured in a similar manner to the old United States," Archer said as he shook his head. "That sounds a lot like something I'd like to see happen here." He glanced one more time around the mess hall, checking out the crew members. While only two members of his crew were alien, here the numbers were far higher. They even had an alien that looked like nothing more than a giant pan pizza made out of rock to him!

Jim Kirk grinned, knowing what he was thinking as he looked at the Horta Ensign who was currently dipping a burnt out something or other into something that Jim didn't want to look at too closely. It wasn't that he was squeamish, just that he tended to wonder what things aliens were eating tasted like. Scotty had a deal with the medical department that oversaw the crew's diets. Any metal or alloy parts that he couldn't salvage went to the Ensign. His diet was made up of metals and lacked certain elements that couldn't be replicated. "His name can't be pronounced by humans so we call him Jake. He thinks it's funny."

Archer shook his head. "And T'Pol says that our universes are so close that the only difference she can find is that I have a different cook on board my ship than the one your Captain Archer did?"

Kirk nodded as he took another bite of his sandwich. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. We know that we aren't in our own past. We also know that certain things are going to happen in your future because the events that led up to those events haven't changed from our universe to yours." Kirk sighed, this wasn't easy to talk about both because of Vulcan rules of privacy and because he was meddling. If the consequences weren't so dire he wouldn't have said a word. But he and Spock couldn't sentence T'Pol or Commander Tucker to death because of information that they didn't have, information that the men from the Federation did have. McCoy also had the necessary skills to correct the upcoming situation.

"You are going to lose T'Pol and Tucker," Kirk decided to just stick to the facts and let Archer think what he would. "Their deaths seriously undermined the effort to establish our Federation. It took a valiant effort on the parts of the respective diplomats to correct the damage done. They died because they are bondmates. That is; they are married in the Vulcan fashion by a permanent mental bond. When one half of a bonded pair dies, quite often the other dies as well from the shock."

"Are you sure that this is going to happen to my T'Pol and Trip?" Archer interrupted urgently. They were both friends of his and he didn't want to lose them. He didn't want to lose any of his crew period.

Kirk nodded. "Spock is not only one of the strongest telepaths on my ship he's also one of the strongest to ever leave Vulcan. He's also T'Pol's great grand nephew, her older sister T'Pau's grandson. He's more aware of the history between those two than most people. He personally checked to see if your two were bonded and they are." Kirk waved off the objection he could see forming. "He didn't have to invade their minds or privacy to check. Bonded couples give off a kind of resonance in their mental signature. He picked up on it when he and T'Pol greeted each other."

"Now, they don't know about it because this is the first time a non-Vulcan has ever formed a spontaneous bond with a Vulcan. It is very rare but it does happen. There are less than a handful of bondmates in the current Vulcan population that I am aware of that have bonded due to spontaneous bonds. T'Pol and Tucker need to go and see a Vulcan healer as soon as you can get them to one. He or she will be able to establish that the bond is a spontaneous one and not one that T'Pol established deliberately. That is the one piece of information that needs to get back to Vulcan and to Earth; that it was something that happened because their minds are especially attuned to each other."

Archer shuddered. He didn't want to think about what would happen if anyone thought that T'Pol had deliberately bonded with Trip. She was in enough trouble with her people for just wanting to stay on the Enterprise instead of leaving to get married. "There are still so many bigots out there," he whispered. He knew that there were as many Vulcans that didn't approve of Humans as there were Humans that didn't approve of Vulcans. Oh they said it differently, couching their bigotry in isolationism and other such political stances, but it came down to the fact that they just didn't like the fact that the other existed. It wouldn't surprise him a bit to find out that someone of either race had killed both Kirk's Trip and T'Pol for daring to get married.

Kirk wasn't surprised that was the conclusion that Archer had jumped to. He remembered what the political climate was in this time from his history classes at the academy. As long as Archer was thinking about the political reasons he wouldn't bother to ask about Vulcan biology which had been the cause of his Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol's deaths. Separated by the distance between their two home planets and unable to get to each other, T'Pol had died from an unconsummated Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating cycle. Not that it would have helped if they were in the same house either, as a Vulcan female could not complete the Pon Farr until she conceived a child.

According to McCoy, that was not an option with the state of this universe's current medical technology. Vulcan/Human hybrids, such as Spock, had to be genetically engineered in a lab. McCoy not only had access to the necessary technology, he also had the necessary skills as he had consulted frequently with the doctors who had made Spock possible. As the first Vulcan/Human hybrid to reach physical maturity, Spock was considered to be the first success of the genetic engineering of hybrid offspring.

"How am I going to lose them?" Archer wanted to know.

Kirk shook his head. That was something he didn't want Archer to be thinking about. "I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to tell Commander Tucker myself. Spock is telling T'Pol right now. The only reason you were included at all is that you are their Captain. They need to hear this from us. As I said, Spock is family and as I'm Spock's bondmate I can talk to Tucker about what it means to be bonded to a Vulcan better than they can."

Archer started in surprise. "The two of you are bondmates?" While he had noticed that the two men had an exceptional rapport, something he envied, he hadn't thought that either man was involved with the other.

Kirk smiled, that was a frequent reaction when he had to explain his and Spock's status. "It was something quite similar to the situation that T'Pol and Tucker find themselves in. Spock and I had to mind meld too many times in the line of duty. When his betrothal bond was broken our bond took over. As it saved Spock's life and I spend more time with him than I do anyone I might have married I don't think it is that bad a situation. The difference is that T'Pol and Tucker haven't melded and that the spontaneous bond took precedence over her betrothal bond naturally.

"Now, since my CMO has the skills they'll need, he's volunteered to do a check up on them to make sure that nothing is going wrong with the physical aspects of their bonding. That isn't really a primary concern but he can also take some samples and genetically engineer some children for them before we leave, as long as there aren't any unforeseen complications."

Archer was stunned. "He can do that?"

Kirk nodded. "The medical technology wasn't available in our universe until fifty years ago but in the last decade it has become quite common for starbases and the larger starships to have such medical tech on board, especially if there are people of mixed heritage serving in the crew."

"By mixed heritage, you mean people whose parents aren't the same species?" Archer asked as they got up to turn their trays in.

"Yes, it isn't common but statistically people of mixed heritage are more likely to go into space and even more likely to end up in Starfleet." Kirk placed his tray into the recycler and then led the way out of the mess hall. "Because of both their unique medical needs and the difficulty in meeting the various medical needs of more than a few species on any one given ship, Starfleet tries to make sure that our sickbays are as up to date as possible. Our doctors have also had to use the tech for other things such as engineering cures for alien viruses and the like."

"Well, I know that Trip would want to have a family if it was an option," Archer admitted. He also knew just how much in love his Chief Engineer was with his First Officer. What he didn't know was how much that love was returned. Would T'Pol reject Trip even with this Vulcan bond thing?


	4. A Family Talk

Chapter Four

As the Federation Enterprise's computers were far superior to her own, being more than a century advanced in technology, T'Pol had agreed with Spock to retire to his quarters to work on the problem of the anomaly. There was no question of impropriety as Spock was not only bonded, but a member of her own family. She did find it however a bit unsettling that her grand nephew was older than she was. Spock wasn't that much older, only a decade, but she still found it unsettling. While T'Pau was the eldest of their parent's children and she the youngest, her sister had only given birth to her nephew Sarak twenty years ago!

They sat facing one another across a desk fitted with two terminals, his configured for his own use and her configured for his bondmate's. The advances in technology were enough that she found herself suppressing feelings of intimidation as she was aware that this computer had not been upgraded. 'Spock is this ship's Science Officer and it is only logical to be slower due to the differences in technology,' she told herself. The thought did not help her feelings of inadequacy no matter how hard she tried to suppress them, especially as they both occupied the same positions on their respective ships, Science Officer and First Officer.

Spock knew that T'Pol would be unaware of her bond with the human engineer as it was too weak at this time to register in her conscious mind. He had the responsibility of informing her as he was the first telepath to become aware of it. More importantly, she was his father's mother's sister and it was something that she should be told from a member of her family. He decided that the best way to break the news to her would be to be blunt. As there had never been a bonding of this kind before in this universe she would need to have evidence. "T'Pol, I have personal information that you require. It is one of the reasons that I asked you to work in my quarters at this time."

T'Pol considered this for a moment, not taking her eyes off of the sensory readings that she was analyzing. There was only one response that she could give. "Within the family is silence," she said in Vulcan. She was referring to the Vulcan tradition that anything personal said within the family was ever repeated to outsiders or even to each other unless it was absolutely necessary.

Spock nodded; he knew that she would listen now. "My psi rating is very high, high enough that had I wished I could have been accepted at the temple as a mind healer. What I knew of family history caused me enough concern for your health that I checked to see if your situation was the same as my universe's T'Pol. It is the same. You and Commander Tucker share a Pudvel-tor katelau tel." (literal translation: chosen mate bond)

T'Pol froze for a fraction of a second before returning to her analysis. "That is not possible, Commander Tucker is Human. Our relationship is also far too confrontational to make such a situation possible."

"Your bond with Commander Tucker is the first such bond in this universe but it is possible to have a Pudvel-tor katelau tel with a non-Vulcan. There are four such bonded pairs living on Vulcan in my universe. Two of those pairs are Human/Vulcan pairings. Having a confrontational relationship with a Human does not preclude friendship with that Human, nor does it preclude the possibility of bonding with that Human. Dr. McCoy and I have just such a friendship, although I would never wish to be bonded with him," Spock admitted.

"The first successful genetic engineering of a child between two spouses of differing species was first achieved sixty years ago. The oldest Vulcan/Human hybrid was born fifty years ago and has successfully passed into adulthood with little more than the expected difficulty that any sentient experiences at that time." He did not bother to explain that the sentient in question was himself, nor how his betrothed's rejection had resulted in his becoming bonded with his Captain. It wasn't completely unprecedented after all, just rare.

T'Pol paused the display she was reading. This was a far more important matter at the moment and deserved her direct attention. The analysis could be taken care of by another portion of her mind. "You are certain of your facts?" she asked. She did not bother to ask why he had included the information on genetically engineered children. To anyone who knew the facts of Vulcan biology the reason was obvious.

Spock nodded. "The T'Pol and Commander Trip of my universe died of complications of Pon Farr. No one was aware of their bond until it was too late. That is the reason that I opened my awareness to discover if you were bonded or not and if it was to Commander Tucker. Doctor McCoy is aware of the situation and has offered to engineer children for you and Commander Tucker as his duties are light at this time."

And they were light because of the five seriously wounded crewmen; all were now in stable condition and well on their way to recovery. The only thing Dr. McCoy was doing was exchanging medical knowledge with Dr. Phlox and making regular check ups on his patients. His exact words were when the situation had been explained to him were, "Get those two in here!" He had then turned around and began giving detailed information to Dr. Phlox about Vulcan/Human mating, pregnancies and expected growth of hybrid offspring that he could think of.

"When my mother told me of the possibility of the Pudvel-tor katelau tel she said that those who are blessed with it are drawn to meld with their bondmate. I have felt no such compulsion." T'Pol pointed out as she looked over the desk at Spock.

"The bond is recent and currently is no stronger than a betrothal bond. I could find no other trace of a bond. As it grows stronger the compulsion will begin. From the strength of the bond at this time and the length of time you have served on board the Enterprise, I was estimate that the bond began to form from your first physical contact with Commander Tucker," Spock said. "I would estimate that you should begin to feel the compulsion to meld in one year, three months and six days."

"Commander Tucker should be made aware of this situation," she said. She had no idea of how he would react. She turned back to her duties to give her time to consider the situation. While they had become better acquainted since she had decided to stay on board Enterprise rather than return to Vulcan to marry Koss, he still confused her frequently. Her thought of Koss reminded her that Spock had said that he could find no trace of her betrothal bond to him. She was hard pressed to suppress a sigh of relief. Even though she found Commander Tucker to be overly emotional, stubborn and possessing a rather strong personal smell, bonding with him would be far preferable to bonding with Koss. She found thoughts of Koss to be distasteful. Bonding with any male of any species would be preferable to bonding with Koss. She was fortunate that this situation would release her with no insult to either of their families.

"Captain Kirk is planning on informing him. As Jim is my bondmate, we felt that he would be the most appropriate person to give Commander Tucker the information. He has also informed your Captain that the two of you are bonded as you will need to see a Vulcan mind healer as soon as possible so that your bond may documented. He allowed Captain Archer to draw his own conclusions as to why our T'Pol and Charles Tucker died."

T'Pol considered the information. "That is logical." As long as she did not meld with Commander Tucker before she was seen by a healer, the healer could confirm that she had made no attempt to bond with him. That would make the Humans more comfortable with the situation. The Vulcan people would find the situation fascinating, she did not doubt. If she truly was bonded to Trip in this manner, then all of Vulcan would have to adjust their thinking about the Humans. She and Commander Tucker however would be spared the intense scrutiny of two worlds. They would be staying on Enterprise. The Pudvel-tor katelau tel would demand that she remain with her chosen mate until they wed and the bond was finalized. No one would dare to interfere with two who were thus bonded.


	5. Trip's Talks

Chapter Five

Trip wasn't happy and wasn't afraid to show it. "Captain, I don't have time! I have blown out relays all over this ship, not to mention all of the crumpled bulkheads and the like. That's what happens when a ship gets hit with one that's four times its size! I just thank God that my engines were off line and we were dead in the water. If they hadn't been we wouldn't be here!" he huffed as he dragged his head out from under a power relay that he had just finished repairing. "I know that it wasn't anybody's fault but I've got too much to do to make time for chit chat!"

"He's right sir," Scotty chimed in from where he was kneeling on top of the warp engines. He was busy replacing crystals and tickled to have the chance to do it. Lieutenant Hess was right next to him, watching in awe. The only person she had ever seen that had this sort of hands on talent with warp engines was her own Chief Engineer.

"Try it now!" Trip called up.

Kirk sighed. That wasn't something he could deny. This Enterprise didn't even have shields to soften the blow his ship had dealt her. Fortunately he was very experienced with Starfleet Engineers and he wasn't the youngest Captain in the fleet for nothing. "I understand that. I just need to talk to you privately. Is there an out of the way repair that you can work on? I may not be an engineer, but I can hand you tools," he offered. "I wouldn't be asking this if it wasn't of the utmost importance."

"Ok, that I can do," Trip agreed. He gathered up his tools. "Hess, I'm going to check on the plasma conduits."

"Understood sir," she said and reorganized her PADD with the repair list. She wasn't at all put out about getting to know Scotty better while Trip took on the repairs in the cramped Jeffries tube.

Trip hit a comm unit on his way out of main engineering and spoke to Hoshi. "Hoshi, if anyone needs him, Captain Kirk is with me. We're going to be out of communication contact for a while in the Jeffries tube above the starboard plasma conduit so send someone down if you need either of us."

"Understood Commander," Hoshi said. She wondered why Captain Kirk was helping Commander Tucker. He wasn't an engineer.

Trip led Kirk down to the Jeffries tube and crawled in ahead of him. The shaft was a tight fit for the two men, but Trip knew just how to situate them both so as to make the best use out of their respective jobs. So he stopped Kirk at the access panel, crawled forward and then turned himself around so that he was lying down in the proper position to remove the panel before starting on his repairs.

He removed the hatch and handed it to Kirk. "Here, set that up against the wall out of the way and hand me that scanner." He pointed at the device on the top of the tool kit.

"Here you are," Kirk said. He was thankful that the best engineers were like Vulcans and able to multitask several very intricate things at once. "All right, now what do you know about Vulcans, customs and marriage practices?"

"They have arraigned marriages that are set at age seven. And it's a big insult for a person to reject their parent's choice," Trip recited. He knew that much from learning about T'Pol's betrothal and her decision to stay on the Enterprise.

"Do you know that Vulcans are touch telepaths?" Kirk asked.

"Yeah, that's why they don't like to be touched. I found that one out a while back." Trip smirked as he recalled the lecture Hoshi had read Malcolm over a bit of gossip he had tried to pass on to her over lunch. "Hand me that spanner," he said as he passed the scanner back.

"Good that gives me a starting point" Kirk said as he switched tools for the engineer. "When Vulcans are betrothed, they are brought in front of a priest and a mental link is set between the children's minds. That is the betrothal bond. Under normal conditions, the betrothal bond will become a marriage bond when the couple gets married through a deeper mind meld. Vulcans consider the bond between mates to be sacred. Interfering in someone else's bond is one of the very few offenses that can still get you executed on Vulcan."

"Oh shit, don't tell me that I'm going to get executed for telling T'Pol she shouldn't have to go back to Vulcan to get married to that guy Koss if she didn't want to!" Trip asked. He didn't let his worry extend to his repairs. He kept his hands steady and working.

Kirk laughed, "No, because you didn't try to break her bond. You just told her to go with what she wanted. I'm talking about actively interfering, like a telepath going in and trying to break a bond. The only ones allowed to break a betrothal bond are the two adults involved. No one is allowed to break a marriage bond."

"Ok, so if I'm not in trouble for messing around with T'Pol's bond to Koss, then where are you going with this?" Trip asked.

"I'm telling you this because there is another type of mating bond. It only happens to someone who is either unbonded or has a betrothal bond, not someone who has a full marriage bond. It is rare and is considered to be the most sacred type of bond that a Vulcan can have. It is called the chosen mate bond. What happens is that a spontaneous mating bond forms between two people whose minds are especially attuned to each other. If the people involved are already betrothed, the spontaneous bond will overwhelm and break the betrothal bonds on its own." Here Kirk paused. He had already seen that Tucker and T'Pol were working on a similar relationship to Spock and McCoy's. He wasn't sure that this news would go over too well. "You and T'Pol have begun to form a chosen mate bond."

That did what the imagined threat to his life had not. Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III stopped working.

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Captain Archer and Lt. Malcolm Reed were in the captain's ready room going over the repairs to the ship's weapons systems when Trip walked in. Or rather he stumbled in. Archer and Malcolm watched as he went directly to the maintenance hatch for the communications circuitry where Archer's secret stash of scotch was hidden. He grabbed the bottle, twisted the top off and took a large gulp before replacing the hatch. He did not however, replace the scotch. That he took with him when he went to sit down on the other side of the table from Archer next to Malcolm. "Why do these things always happen to me?" he moaned.

"What happened this time?" Malcolm asked concerned. He couldn't imagine what could have happened to Trip now. They were in the middle of repairs and he should have been too busy for any sort of accident/medical problem/female interaction that Malcolm knew to watch out for. He knew the list both from experience and the tall tales he had been told from those who wanted him to be aware of just how much a trouble magnet one particular Starfleet Engineer could be. The man had a history going back to junior high school it seemed and as the Enterprise's Armory Officer it was his job to make sure that Trip landed in as little trouble as possible.

Trip put his head down on the table. He didn't want to look anyone in the face when he told this one, not even his two closest friends. "My dad's gonna kill me. Hell, I ain't even sure my momma's gonna leave anything left for him to kill!" he moaned.

Archer, who thanks to Captain Kirk knew what was coming, started to snicker. "It isn't that bad, Trip."

"Jon, this makes getting pregnant look like a splinter!" Trip moaned before taking another swig from the bottle and setting his head down on the table once more. He had never been able to live that one down and when this one got out!

'Whatever happened this time should be really good,' Malcolm snickered to himself. Struggling to keep the smirk off of his face, he laid a hand on Trip's shoulder. This was obviously one of those times that rank could be laid aside. Besides if he insisted on being properly military right now there was no way he'd ever find out what happened! "I'm sure that he's right, Trip. It can't be that bad."

"Malcolm, T'Pol's and my subconscious decided to go and get hitched without asking us!" Trip growled. That did it for Malcolm's reserve. He joined Archer in fits of laughter. "It ain't funny guys! Vulcan's don't get divorced. Once you're hitched that it." That silenced the laughter abruptly. "Yeah, now you're getting the picture." he grumbled before taking another gulp of scotch.

"Isn't there any way the two of you can get out of it?" Malcolm asked seriously. This was an altogether different situation. Not that he believed for one minute that they should get divorced. The last few months had shown him that those two not only deserved each other, they were also madly in love even if they didn't know it.

"Nope, and any telepath who tries to break a 'chosen mate bond'," Trip made quote marks around the name, "is committing a death sentence felony under Vulcan law."

If there had been any laughter still hiding in the two men, that silenced it. "Why on earth would it be a death sentence felony?" Malcolm wanted to know. He hadn't known that Vulcans even had crimes they considered serious enough to have a death sentence for. They were all what he called modified pacifists; they wouldn't harm others until they had been attacked. Of course they weren't stupid enough to think that they wouldn't be attacked either, given their planet's history. That was why they maintained a military. They just watched and waited for their opponent to make the first move before they crushed them.

"The telepathic bond between mates is considered sacred. Anyone who tries to break it not only harms the bondmates involved, possibly even killing them, they are also going against hundreds of thousands of years of religion and custom. The bond goes so far back into Vulcan pre-history that no one knows when it got started." Trip sighed, "Basically when a marriage bond is completed the mates become almost a single entity, mentally speaking; or at least as close to it as is possible in this universe."

"Captain Kirk told me that if one half of a bonded pair dies, then most of the time the other dies as well from the shock," Archer murmured.

"I don't doubt it," Trip said. "It must be like having half of your soul ripped away." He sighed and rubbed his face. It wasn't like he hated T'Pol after all, he just wasn't sure he liked her some times. Ok, a lot of the time but it had to get better right? His and her minds had gotten along well enough to get them into this mess. "Dr. McCoy is waiting for me down in Sickbay. He's going to see if he can engineer us some kids in case we decide later we want them." He screwed the cap back onto the bottle and shoved it over to Archer. It wouldn't do to go over there drunk and he still had more repairs to do.

"What do you mean by that, in case you want them later?" Malcolm wanted to know.

"He's going to give us embryos in stasis boxes. That way T'Pol can carry the kids to term when we're ready. It also means that while he'll make sure that the embryos are viable, they'll still be young enough that they can be terminated if we don't want children. They'll only be a few hours old when they go into stasis. They'll still be at just the mass of cells stage, so we won't have a problem with termination." At that stage both of their cultures did not consider them children yet as they were incapable of independent movement. Trip knew though that they would be having the kids in spite of that fact. Somewhere at the base of his gut, the idea of his wife having someone else's kids when she could be having his didn't set well. This was the only time the technology would be available to them, so they had to do it now. He'd better get over there and let the docs get to work.

He also hadn't been joking about his parents. While his father's views about Vulcans were softening, (mostly due to his letters about his own growing respect for T'Pol) it was the thought of telling his mother that he'd gone and gotten married without telling her that really had his stomach in a mess. Well, that and the scotch. There was also the fact that this was all happening too fast. He just wished that he and T'Pol had more time to work on their relationship before getting hit with this.


	6. A trip to the doctors

Although their patients were recovering nicely, neither Doctor Phlox nor Doctor McCoy wanted to leave Sickbay before they had recovered. That meant that Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol were asked to come to the NX-01's Sickbay for their exams. Reassured that the exams would not take long, they complied while Captains Archer and Kirk met with Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott. They would join the conference when the exams were complete.

Trip found that he couldn't look T'Pol in the face. It didn't help that she was staring at him like he was some kind of new science specimen that she had picked up off of a new planet somewhere. Of all the things that he had thought about doing with the woman, having kids wasn't one of them. That was one of the reasons he was so abrupt with the doctors when he was told to get up on the biobed. "Can you make this quick, doc? I got a ton of work to do."

Dr. Leonard McCoy wasn't the small town, hillbilly sawbones he pretended to be. Not only did he have multiple medical degrees, he also had a ton of experience in interspecies interaction, from 'hi I'm about to kill you' to 'gees you're the sexiest thing I've ever seen' and everything in between. Tucker and T'Pol weren't the first couple he'd seen who had been thrown together unexpectedly into a marriage. From what he could see of their body language, he figured these two had a pretty good shot. "Don't you worry son," he said turning on the charm. "Your part in all of this is going to take just a few minutes. I'd recommend that you start reading up on Vulcan culture and history as soon as you can though. There's a lot that Vulcans don't talk about outside of their families that you're going to need to know in the future."

T'Pol was still learning about Human body language, but she understood the look Doctor McCoy shot her when he said this. On the one hand, she was relieved that he was not going to explain in front of everyone about Pon Farr. On the other hand, it was clear that he expected her to inform Commander Tucker about it, something that she really did not wish to do.

"Sure doc," Trip said. He didn't know what Dr. McCoy was talking about but he was sure that T'Pol did. The way she looked right now was almost identical to the look she was wearing when they'd had their talk about her engagement. Trip watched carefully as Dr. McCoy proceeded with his scans, more interested in the machinery the doctor was using than in what was actually happening. True to his word, Dr. McCoy's scans only took a couple of minutes. But then to Trip's embarrassment the doctor handed him a sample jar. 'It isn't like you didn't know this was coming,' he though to himself as he left to fill the jar.

T'Pol got onto the biobed as Trip left the room. "I thank you for your discretion doctor," she said. She had noticed the Human courtesy facilitated interaction among Humans in a way that she still did not quite understand.

"Of course SubCommander," he said. "You realize of course that he does need to have that information."

"Yes, I plan on ensuring that he is given the proper information after our bond is confirmed. Although Spock has informed me of its existence, I still do not believe it is possible. Commander Tucker and I are far too often adversaries for me to consider us to be compatible as bondmates. Spock tells me that such a relationship is possible for a Human though. Do the two of you really have such a friendship?" T'Pol asked.

McCoy grinned. He had wondered when someone would ask about that. "We are indeed friends but most of our arguments aren't just for fun. There is a real medical reason for them." He turned a more sober face to T'Pol. Hopefully he could convince this young woman not to make the same mistake that Sarak had. "Spock needs to express his emotions but he was raised as though he was a full Vulcan."

"He is not?" T'Pol was stunned. She hadn't been aware that Spock could have been anything else.

"His mother is Human. And living as a though he wasn't half Human has put a great deal of stress on the Human parts of his biology, such as his digestive systems. You see a Human literally needs to express his or her emotions or the stress of suppressing those emotions can lead to some serious medical problems. Since I came on board the Enterprise and we started our adversarial friendship, his stress levels have dropped by 50." McCoy was actually proud of that. It hadn't been easy to get Spock to let loose even a little. "Now, mind you, he's as much Vulcan as he is Human, so having him really let go would be a very bad idea. But he does need to let his emotions out a little bit just as a stress relief."

"As he was genetically engineered, why not eliminate those systems that would be affected by emotional control?" she asked. The idea that Humans needed to express their emotions was something she had never considered before. As emotional as they were, she had often wondered how they had managed to come as far as they had without assistance. Perhaps there was something she was missing in this equation.

"Because some Human biological systems are much more efficient," Doctor Phlox said enthusiastically. "Especially the digestive system. A Human can survive for almost a month without food while a Vulcan can survive for only about a week and a half. A Human requires far more water of course than a Vulcan, but a Human can digest things that contain water that a Vulcan can't. In fact, a Human can eat a much larger variety than a great number of species. Having to live a little more emotional than the average Vulcan shouldn't be a problem." Phlox didn't see it as one and couldn't believe that any physician would either. But apparently someone hadn't listened to those who had designed the poor man.

Trip walked in for the last part of the conversation. To his embarrassment, filling the jar hadn't taken long, mostly because the picture he'd gotten into his head of T'Pol in the decon chamber had helped. He wasn't sure how to deal with that. On the one hand, this woman was supposed to be his wife. On the other hand, this was T'Pol! She was the most frustrating and infuriating woman he knew. He knew he had a tendency to fall for strong women but she was a Vulcan. And he had to admit, if only to himself, that she had become less of 'the Vulcan' to him over the last few months than simply T'Pol, a fellow officer.

The knowledge that Spock was half human was actually comforting to Trip. He had talked to Scotty quite a bit about their situation and Scotty had absolute faith in Spock to come up with the answer of what was needed to close the rift before it destroyed both of their universes. According to Scotty, Spock was one of the smartest men in Starfleet and without a doubt he was the best First Officer. Their crew had been to the Klingon Homeworld to Hell and back again, several times, because of the senior officers without failing their missions or loosing too many members of their crew. If his kids could be even half as good a person as Spock was, then he wouldn't have to worry too much about them and T'Pol he was sure would see the logic in raising them to express some emotion. He wouldn't be stuck in a house full of non-emotional Vulcans, all looking down on him for venting.


	7. Meetings

Trip was glad to put the doctors' visit behind him. He and T'Pol arrived in the situation room and immediately dived into the problem of the rift. "Here is the data we have collected on the formation of the rift," Spock said as he started the simulation.

"Closing the rift will require an implosion," T'Pol began only to be interrupted by Trip.

"On both sides. Scotty whatcha got that can do the job on your end?" he asked.

Archer stepped back to watch as Trip, Malcolm, Scotty and Lt. Kyle, the 1701's Weapons Officer, started throwing around weapons specs, power equations, fuel components and Lord only knew what else as they quickly left him behind. He did notice however, that T'Pol, although few would realize it, was not pleased to have been interrupted. 'Trip's in the doghouse again and he doesn't even realize it,' Archer thought, hiding a smile. He knew that they didn't realize how often they acted like they were married. Then he sobered as he realized that to Vulcans, they were. 'Then again, maybe he's provoking another fight. I swear those two enjoy fighting with each other more than any other couple I've ever seen.'

Trip and T'Pol's 'discussions' had already reached legendary status on board. Officially he had to ignore the crew's betting pool on the outcome of the fights between the two senior officers. Unofficially however, Archer was the score keeper for Ensign Sato who had been persuaded to keep the record book. This served two purposes. The first was that it created an informal connection with his crew, one that let them see him as human rather than a figure head. The second was that if there was ever a fight that the crew shouldn't know about he could make sure that they didn't, at least as long as Trip and T'Pol behaved themselves in public.

Archer's musings were interrupted when Kirk leaned over to Spock and said, "I thought they weren't far enough along to hear each other's thoughts yet."

"Not with any consistency yet, however both spontaneously following a single thought process is inevitable now that they are aware of the bond," Spock informed him. Archer wondered who that information was for. They were certainly bonded enough that they didn't need to speak out loud to each other. Then he looked over at T'Pol. Although she wasn't participating in the quiet discussion, he could see the minute relaxation of her shoulders. It seemed that Trip would get away with it this time.

In no time at all the four men had the plans for the weapons they needed worked out. "Sirs, we need to switch around a few components but we can have the torpedoes we need built within six hours," Scotty said. He turned to the Science Officers. "How long before the rift is critical?"

"Six hours, thirteen minutes, eight seconds," both Vulcans answered.

"Don't waste time here," Archer said to Trip and Malcolm.

Kirk merely said, "Go Scotty." Scotty grabbed Kyle and they ran for the turbolift. Malcolm and Trip were already at their stations, pulling up component lists and sending orders to their people on where to deliver the parts.

"T'Pol keep an eye on that rift," Archer ordered. "Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, it has been a pleasure to meet you and your crew." He shook hands with Kirk and nodded to Spock. As much as he would like to spend a few more hours with Kirk, the sooner the 1701 left, the better for both universes and they all had work to do. With the safety of both universes safe in the hands of his crew, Archer needed to check on those who weren't up to their elbows in the current crisis.

His first stop was Hoshi and Travis. He found them in the mess hall discussing the implications of the 1701's integrated crew and government. "It's not just that they've explored so much farther than we have Travis," Hoshi was saying. "It's the fact that they've done it under a single unified government that still allows each planet internal autonomy. They don't try and force one species to follow the path of another. They accept each other's differences and try to work out compromises for interstellar laws."

"I just can't see our Vulcans going for it," Travis protested. "Not now, maybe in a hundred years when we prove that we're not going to cause an interstellar crisis by bumbling around out here."

"Actually," Archer said as he slid into a seat next to Hoshi. "Their Federation was created about ten years after their NX-01 launched. I think that we have a good chance of making it happen here, maybe even sooner because we know that it's possible."

Travis shook his head, "I don't know sir, I'm stuck on the Vulcans. I just can't see Soval or any of the rest of them admitting that we have a place out here in the universe, especially after they've held our space program back a full generation."

"I think that's because we still don't know each other well enough," was Hoshi's opinion.

"We've know about Vulcans for nearly seventy five years!" Travis protested.

Archer waved him down. "Why do you think that Hoshi?" he asked. He had a great deal of respect for his communications officer and he could tell that she was on to something, although he didn't have the faintest idea of what that was. She just had the look on her face that she got when she was about to pull a rabbit out of a hat that he didn't even know was there.

"Well, I've been thinking about this for a while now as I've gotten to know T'Pol a little. I think we've been dealing with at least a couple of mistranslations and miscommunications. The first one I think is purely a mistranslation. The concept that Vulcans don't have emotions is plainly wrong. I think the way to describe the concept properly is that they've learned to control their emotions to a far greater extent than we can imagine, so much so in fact that they can't imagine dealing with them in any other way. And any sort of public display of emotion is considered, well the nearest I can figure its like running around nude, screaming at the top of your lungs in the middle of the Earth Government Assembly. You just don't do it."

Travis and Archer couldn't hold back their snickers at the image. Hoshi grinned and continued. "I'm pretty sure that there is a cultural miscommunication going on too in our dealings with them but I can't put my finger on it. There is something in the body language of the Vulcans I've dealt with but the trouble is that it is so subtle I'm having a hard time defining it."

"Hoshi, you may be on to something. Try to get to know T'Pol better, spend more time with her. I'm sure that she'd be interested in your theory." Archer was tempted to say something about T'Pol needing to learn how human women dealt with their men, but held back. It wasn't a good idea to let that cat out of the bag just yet. "Trip, Malcolm, Scotty and Lt. Kyle have a plan to close the rift before it goes critical in just over six hours. What I need to know is do the two of you need anything in the next six hours? What about your departments?" he asked changing the subject.

"Communications is fine sir," Hoshi said. "We're still missing a few relays but nothing that's going to be critical in the next few days."

"The repairs have been finished on the hull and Helm is ready to go sir," Travis said.

Archer knew more than most how integrated a ship's systems were. If one section wasn't ready, it affected every other system it was connected to. But that didn't mean that they couldn't function without being 100. They just had to be careful. "That's good to know. I'm not sure what the effects will be other than closing the rift, so batten down your departments and warn your people to be on the look out for anything. I need to check in with the other department heads." With that, he got up and left them to finish their discussion.

He then went on to check with as many department heads as he could. Trip and Malcolm were busy and he didn't want to interrupt. Besides, if their departments needed something they already had carte blanch to take it. T'Pol would tell him if Science needed anything. She'd be insulted if she thought that he believed he needed to check up on her department. Archer paused, going back over his thought process. Hoshi was right. He'd learned that because of the interaction he'd had with his First Officer. In Human cultures, checking with your department heads was both necessity and a form of politeness, Humans needed to know that their Commanding Officer cared enough to ask. For Vulcans, it meant that the Commanding Officer thought that a department head was incompetent enough to need checking. The last department on his mental list was Sickbay. "Hello Doctor," he said as he entered.

"Hello Captain!" the eternally cheerful Phlox called. He bustled out of his office and over to Archer. "I do realize that you are terribly busy with this rift situation but I'm very glad that you could make some time to come down here. Dr. McCoy is an amazing physician and medical researcher. But I know before I get into that, you'll want to see the crewmembers." It was an almost universal trait he'd found, of Humans that were in charge. They needed to personally see any of their people who were injured as soon as it was medically advisable and as soon as they could get away from their other duties. He though that the tendency had something to do with their culture. The parental figure of a group was viewed as uncaring if the checks were not done. 'Amazing how similar some things are, regardless of how many light years apart the species and cultures evolved,' Phlox thought to himself. 'Parental concern in almost universal among higher life forms and almost every culture has some way to express that concern, even when there is no direct genetic link between those interacting.'

Archer smiled, pleased that the doctor hadn't wanted to talk to him first. That meant that there was nothing seriously wrong with his crew and that what Phlox had learned from Dr. McCoy could wait. Phlox wasn't a man to hold back where his patients were concerned. Of the five crewmen who had been seriously injured, all were well on their way to recovery. After speaking with each of them, Archer turned back to Phlox.

"Alright Phlox," Archer sighed. "I know I've left the Medical department until last but I figured you'd have your hands full and I didn't want to get in your way." He sat down on a chair next to the counter where Phlox was working, exhaustion oozing from every pore.

"Nonsense Captain, I know you're the one who has had his hands full. It isn't easy trying to run this ship, play nice with visitors, make certain that your ship's repair crews have everything they need to make sure that your ship isn't about to be destroyed and deal with what amounts to a family crisis all at the same time," Phlox said, waving his finger at Archer.

Archer laughed. "Yeah, that's one way to put having two of my senior officers get married without anyone realizing it, including them!" He sobered and leaned forward. "How are they? They're both too busy rushing around trying to deal with the repairs, closing the rift and each other to talk to me and I don't want to push them right now. They've got too much on their plates as it is."

"Medically speaking, they're both fine. This is going to take some time for both of them to adjust to the situation and I'm certain that the ship's betting pool is going to get quite a workout over the next few months. There are bound to be more than a few fights between them as they settle down into being bonded but I think they'll make the transition well." Phlox hesitated and then decided that the Vulcan mating drive was confidential medical knowledge but that he could express his concerns without getting into that. "The one thing that I am concerned about is that while Humans and Vulcans are compatible, you might want to be aware that SubCommander T'Pol is much stronger than a Human." He looked at Archer intently.

At first Archer didn't get it. Then he blushed bright red as he realized what the doctor was trying to say without spelling it out. "I'll keep that in mind Doctor," he said.

"Well, other than that I have no concerns about the two of them medically or emotionally. Their children are viable and safe in the stasis chamber I have right here." Phlox gestured at the blue box that sat on his counter. It was a chamber that Dr. McCoy had given him so as to increase the chances of the children's survival until they could be implanted in their mother. "Dr. McCoy has been more than helpful. Why he," Archer settled down to listen as Phlox carried on about what he'd learned from the other doctor. While he knew that it was going to take quite a while for the doctor to run out of things to say it was a far more pleasant duty than sitting on the bridge wondering if two miracle workers from two different universes were enough to keep both of their universes from being destroyed.


	8. Closing the Rift

Captain Kirk waited in his command chair for Scotty and Mr. Kyle to tell him they were ready. While he was sure that his crew wouldn't have a problem with saving the universe once again, he was a little worried about the crew of the NX-01. They hadn't had a problem with the routine repairs or working with the non-human members of his crew. But the first year a crewman spent out in space was used to change him from a green recruit into a seasoned officer. The only member of the NX-01 who had more than six months deep space experience was SubCommander T'Pol, and she had never experienced anything like this.

"All right sir, we're ready on this end," Scotty said.

"Good," Kirk said and then turned his attention to his bridge crew. They were expecting him to speak to Lt. Uhura and were a little surprised when he addressed them all. "Ok people, now you need to remember before Uhura opens a channel with the NX-01 that this is a green crew we're dealing with. They've been spectacular up until now dealing with this situation but this is the point where they're going to need a shot of confidence from us. Let's make sure we give it to them." He looked around and smiled as each of the bridge crew deliberately relaxed and did their best to look completely unconcerned. "Good," he said as he copied them. "Now, Uhura if you would please?"

"Opening hailing frequency Captain," she said.

Captain Archer sat in his command chair pleased, but nervous with the situation. Either having two miracle workers working together was the magic number or each had under estimated the other. Both crews had managed to put together the needed torpedoes in record breaking time. A full two hours before the six hour deadline both starships were moving into position to close the rift.

"Captain, the 1701 is hailing us," Hoshi said crisply. The entire bridge crew was on edge with nerves. They had barely begun to dry out behind the ears as a starship crew and now the fate of two universes lay in their hands.

"On screen Ensign," Archer said. He tried to tell himself that he had every confidence in T'Pol, Trip and Malcolm but the sheer enormity of what they were about to do was overwhelming him. He knew that his crew needed him to at least seem confident, so he put on the Captain face he had been developing. The view screen switched from the scene of the rift to show the bridge of the 1701.

The relaxed posture of that bridge crew, especially Captain Kirk, had a positive effect on Archer's crew. He could practically hear them relaxing all around him. 'Too bad I know better,' he thought to himself before greeting Kirk. 'No matter who ran the numbers, this isn't guaranteed to work.'

On the bridge of the 1701, Kirk was impressed. He knew that Archer's crew, while inexperienced was professional but he hadn't expected to see such good poker faces. He had expected to see a display of nerves at the very least. The only sign he could see of the stress they were under was in their stiff postures and those were relaxing as they realized that his crew didn't seem to think that this part of the job was any less routine than the repairs. It wasn't that simple of course, but the crew of the 1701 had been bluffing everyone in their universe for years into thinking just that. "Captain Archer we've reached our position. Good luck to you and your crew in your future endeavors."

"And to you and yours," Archer replied. "Just so you know, as soon as we fire off our torpedo, I'm getting my ship as far back as I can and still stay in the same area. I don't want us to get sucked into the implosion or anything." What he really didn't want was for Kirk to think that they were turning tail and running. He was relieved when Kirk laughed and said that they were going to be doing the same thing on their side. After exchanging good byes, the call ended and the view screen once more returned to the sight of the rift.

"Malcolm, Travis, it's all yours," Archer said. "You two know what to do."

"Aye sir," they both said and continued to watch the countdown. When the timer ran down the effects were almost instantaneous. Malcolm and Kyle fired their torpedoes and Travis and Sulu flew their ships away from the implosion. Just as Spock and T'Pol had calculated, the torpedoes hit each other at the precise place where they were needed. The implosion was rather spectacular, with radiation waves imitating the dust effects a similar implosion would have created in a planetary atmosphere. Travis just barely got them out of the way in time. Everyone could feel the edge of the implosion as the Enterprise rocked gently in space.

"Whoo," Archer breathed. He turned to T'Pol, "How does it look?"

She looked up and he could tell she was trying to bury a certain amount of smug satisfaction. "We have succeeded Captain."

All over the bridge Archer could hear the sounds of people coming down off the adrenaline high. "Good work people," he said. "T'Pol, find the nearest medical facility. Dr. Phlox says that three of our people are going to have to be shipped back to Earth for the duration of their recoveries. Malcolm, Trip, my ready room."

"Aye, aye Captain," came from all over the bridge.

Archer got up and turned command over to T'Pol before leading the way to his ready room. Trip and Malcolm fell in behind him, exhausted but holding back the giddiness brought on by success. As they collapsed into the chairs around Archer's desk, Archer grabbed the bottle of scotch and passed it around. "I can't tell you how glad I am that this worked."

"You're not the only one!" Trip said fervently.

"Here, here!" Malcolm agreed. The three friends settled down to relax and both Archer and Malcolm decided that now was the perfect time to start teasing Trip about his impending marriage.

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T'taskai had been a Mind Healer for nearly a century. Unlike most of her colleagues she specialized in the mental disorders that occurred in space travelers. Like most Vulcans who were involved in travel beyond their world she was aware of young T'Pol and her position on the Human starship Enterprise. Few Vulcans ever traveled on alien ships and none had done so alone for as long as she had. She had moved her practice to the closest medical facility so that if there was a problem with T'Pol's mental health she would be available as quickly as possible. There was no telling what sort of damage dealing with Humans day in and day out had done to her logic.

She had been expecting the call she received from Captain Archer asking for an appointment. What she had not expected was that it was not only for T'Pol. T'Pol was escorted into her office by two Humans, one of whom she identified as Captain Archer. "Captain Archer, SubCommander T'Pol, Commander," she said recognizing the other Human's rank, if not his identity. "Captain, although you requested this appointment, you did not transmit any details. May I inquire as to the reason my services are required?" It would not do to make any assumptions. There were a great number of illnesses or injuries that T'Pol may have suffered as well as the unknown hazards of unexplored space. And there was the Commander to consider as well. She had no idea why he was here.

"Healer, I'm afraid that the reason I've requested your services is a rather delicate matter. You see, we've been told that SubCommander T'Pol and Commander Tucker have formed a telepathic bond. Neither of them has ever participated in a mind meld with each other. While I trust the telepath that gave us this information, I do need to have it confirmed by a Healer. As far as I know nothing like this has ever happened before." Archer wasn't sure about the proper way to go about confirming what Spock had told them but they needed to get it confirmed fast. He could only hope that this Healer could do that.

T'taskai could only blink. This Human could not be saying what she thought he was saying. "Child?" she asked T'Pol.

"The information Captain Archer has given you is all the information that we have, honored Healer. I have never heard of this being possible but our interaction with the telepath did indicate that he is trustworthy. I ask for your wisdom in this matter," T'Pol said calmly. She wasn't as calm as she outwardly appeared to be. She was controlling as hard as she could but she was at once both terrified that it was true and terrified that it wasn't.

"Commander what would you ask of me?" T'taskai asked.

"I just want to know if we're bonded or not ma'am. I ain't too sure about it, but if I understand the way this works, well then," Trip shrugged. "I'm not gonna try and fight it if we're really bonded."

T'taskai nodded. That was very logical, if it was true. Bondmates should not fight their bonding but it was also true that no non-Vulcan had ever bonded with a Vulcan before, at least not without repeated mindmelds. She personally did not think that it was possible but her long years as a Mind Healer for those that explored the unknown had shown her that much was possible under the correct circumstances. "Please come with me SubCommander, Commander. Captain, please wait here." She led her two patients into the next room where she held her consultations, leaving Captain Archer in the outer office.

The consultation room was very plain, with a couch along one wall and two pillows on either side of a flame pot. T'taskai gestured for T'Pol and Trip to kneel on the pillows while she collected a third from the couch. Trip rubbed his hands nervously on his pants as he knelt down on the pillow. T'Pol knelt and simply waited for the Healer. All of her concentration was focused on her emotional control.

T'taskai laid the pillow down in front of the flame pot and gestured for her patients to face one another. "Commander, as you are not Vulcan I will explain the procedure to you before I attempt it. Is that satisfactory?"

"Yes ma'am," Trip said, just wishing she'd get on with it.

"I must touch your minds with my telepathic ability. As the information I seek is very specific, it should not take long to find it. I have touched Human minds before and I am aware that a clinical touch is not comfortable for your species. It will help if you do not fight me." T'taskai instructed. Trip nodded and she placed her hand on his face at the psi points. She gently brushed her mind against his. No matter how gently she thought she was being Trip still flinched from the coldness of the contact. His flinch was not enough to make a different to her diagnosis. She then turned to T'Pol.

T'Pol was much more used to the telepathic touch of a Mind Healer. She held her mental shields open so that the Mind Healer could examine her. The examination was more thorough than the one that Trip had been subject too. Not only did the Healer search for signs of the bond, but also any sign that T'Pol had established a mindmeld with Trip, no matter how brief.

Archer looked up as the door to the consultation room opened. T'taskai approached him, leading both T'Pol and Trip. "The information you were given is correct Captain. SubCommander T'Pol and Commander Tucker are bondmates. T'Pol did not initiate this nor did Commander Tucker. I will inform the Vulcan government and the Vulcan High Command of the situation. I will deliver my report to you so that you may inform Earth's government and Starfleet."

"Thank you for your help in this matter Healer," Archer said. "I will wait for your report. Live long and prosper."

"Live long and prosper Captain, SubCommander, Commander." T'taskai said as Archer led his officers out of her clinic. 'This situation must be recorded for the history books,' she mused as she quickly wrote out her reports. 'I have no doubt that many will find this completely fascinating. I wonder if this Human is typical of his species? If that is true, many preconceptions may need to be revised.'


	9. Letters Home

Trip looked at the computer console on his desk and sighed. This was not going to be an easy letter to write. Even in the privacy of his own quarters the news that he had to send to his parents made him want to squirm. How in the world was he supposed to tell his mom and dad that he was practically married to a Vulcan? And to T'Pol, his ship's first officer no less? The only thing that gave him even the slightest bit of satisfaction was that he wasn't alone in having to explain the situation to family members. T'Pol was writing to her family as well. Neither of them felt that it was appropriate for their families to have to learn this information from their respective governments. Only, how was he going to actually say it?

"Hey Mom and Dad," he began. "I don't know when this letter is going to get to you, so if you hear this from the Earth Council or Starfleet or someone, please try to remember that I tried to tell you first." No, that wasn't going to go over too well. He punched a key and erased the first sentence. He tried looking out the port hole for inspiration but the passing stars told him nothing. "Well, I can't sit here forever," he muttered. "I have some important news for you and the family."

He paused again, tongue in cheek. 'How in the world to you translate a Vulcan mating bond into Human English?' he wondered. 'Let's try this.' "I know I've written to you about all of the alien people we've encountered and some of their customs." 'No, that's not right.' He erased that sentence too. "I know that everyone except the two of you got a real kick out of my accidentally getting pregnant thanks to touching hands while playing an alien board game. I know that you would have wanted to be the first to know if that situation had resulted in my becoming a father. So, I'm writing to you now to let you know that I've gotten into another strange situation."

While that wasn't that much better, it did let his parents know that something major was up and that involved him bringing someone into the family. It still wasn't right though; this one would make them think he and some lady were expecting right away. He shook his head and once more erased the message. He paced around his quarters, running his fingers through his hair, from bunk to portal to desk and back again. Thanks to the rush to get off of Earth for their first mission, he didn't have a lot of things in his cabin to fiddle with. Right now he could have used something.

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T'Pol sat down at her desk in her quarters to write a letter to her mother. "Mother, I have been informed that I have formed a Pudvel-tor katelau bond with Commander Charles Tucker, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. I did not believe this was possible as Commander Tucker is Human. Captain Archer arraigned for us to see a Vulcan healer to discover if it was indeed possible. I have just now returned from our session with the healer. The information was correct. Commander Tucker is my mate. The healer will be sending documentation to those who require it on Vulcan. Captain Archer will do so for those on Earth. As Father is dead, I ask that you chose a replacement for him to inform Koss and his family of my situation."

With the formalities taken care of T'Pol paused before continuing. "The one who informed me of my bonding to Commander Tucker is an extremely powerful telepath. He stated that our bond is a strong one and most likely was initiated at the beginning of my service on board the Enterprise, perhaps from the first time I had physical contact with the Commander." She paused once more thinking of her experience with Commander Tucker in the decon chamber during their first mission six months ago. There was no doubt in her mind that, that was the beginning of her bond with him. She had been able to smell his interest even as they argued. And his touch had affected her as well. Indeed, it seemed to her that their frequent arguments quite often affected them both in such a manner, illogical though it was.

"Commander Tucker is a brilliant engineer and is very loyal to his Captain. He is however, a Human and a very emotional one for a member of his species. I am, unsure as to how this will affect me. We are taught that the Pudvel-tor katelau bond only happens to those who are exceptionally compatible. I have yet to see this. But there is no question to what action I must now take. Commander Tucker has offered the compromise of having two wedding ceremonies, one Human and one Vulcan, the Vulcan ceremony to take place the next time we arrive at Vulcan. I find this very logical. I will, however, insist on honoring Vulcan traditions during the first year of our marriage.

"As it will be sometime before I can return to Vulcan, I have begun to research Human mating and wedding customs. I believe that it would be useful for Commander Tucker to research Vulcan customs as well. I ask that you send Commander Tucker the appropriate materials. I do not at this time have any information on Commander Tucker's family or whether they would be willing to travel to Vulcan to attend the ceremony there. The Human ceremony will take place here on Enterprise as soon as it can be arranged. This may or may not wait until Commander Tucker's family may come on board. There are many variables that I must investigate. I will contact you when I have further information on this matter.

Fair thee well Mother."

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Charles Tucker Junior and his wife had been eager to hear from their eldest son. While he had sent frequent letters back to Earth for his family, even to the point of arranging his nephew's extra credit project (his entire class had sent letters to the Enterprise and somehow Trip had managed to get them all answered by different members of the crew) the fact that Trip had been away from the family for over six months was hard for them to bear. That had made each and every letter something of a family event.

So when Catherine Tucker called her sons, daughters and husband to tell them that there was a letter, it was to no one's surprise that everyone that could be there came to the family house that night. In fact, the only members of the Tucker clan that weren't there were Danielle, Trip's older sister, her husband and two boys. They were still in Ireland. Danielle's job as a teacher there was done at the end of this school year and her family was planning on returning to Florida then. Catherine copied each and every letter from her little brother and sent it straight on to them every time she received one. That way she made sure that everyone in the family was kept up to date in the life of her space traveling son.

Catherine waited in the parlor of her home with barely suppressed excitement. She checked to make sure that everyone had gathered around the communications console. James Tucker, his wife Sarah, and two of their four children stood on her right side while his brother Eric Tucker stood with his father Charles on her left with the other two children. Her younger daughter Elizabeth stood directly behind her. "Everyone ready?" she asked.

Various nods, grins and one very excited "Hurry up Grandma!" met her question. Laughing she started the recording. "Hey Mom and Dad, and everyone else because I know Mom has all of you there to listen to this. I must have started and erased this letter about a dozen times at least and not once could I get it right, so I'll just come out and say it. I've somehow gotten sort of engaged, sort of married, to the Enterprise's Vulcan First Officer, T'Pol."

Charles was the one who shot out a finger to stop the recording and rewind it. He just couldn't believe what he had heard. The rest of the family stared at the screen in shock as once more the recording gave them Trip's shocking announcement. It was Eric who broke the silence of the normally gregarious clan. "Oh man, the trouble magnet strikes again!"

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T'Les sat at her communications console in her office at the Vulcan Science Academy doing her best to suppress her surprise and shock at the contents of her daughter's letter. She had known from her daughter's previous communications that there were logical reasons for her to remain on board the Enterprise. She had not expected this to be one of them. However, one could not deny the Pudvel-tor katelau bond; to do so was folly in the extreme.

Her daughter's requests were also logical. Tradition demanded that the father of one who has formed a Pudvel-tor katelau bond inform that child's betrothed. As T'Pol's father was dead, someone would need to take his place and it was T'Les' responsibility to choose that person. Who would she chose to inform Koss and his family of her daughter's change in status? As for the information she requested that T'Les send to Commander Tucker that was logical as well. In forming a Pudvel-tor katelau bond with a Human, many adjustments would have to be made, much more than if her mate was Vulcan. Her mate must be given all of the information he would need so that these adjustments could be made as easily as possible. She was concerned however, that T'Pol made no mention of her time. It was some years off yet, so there would be time to make arrangements. Perhaps she was waiting until her mate had the information on the Vulcan mating cycle?

She looked again at her daughter's letter. Yes, she had missed the implications of her daughter's request for information for Commander Tucker. The Commander must be unaware of the Pon Farr and how it should be dealt with. If he had been Vulcan, his father would have given him the relevant information. As he was not, it was up to her as T'Pol's mother to provide the information to him so that he could find a way to survive the process. Humans were known to be a fragile race. Perhaps she should include the information on restraints. It was unfortunate that Vulcans and Humans were genetically incompatible. Children that resulted from Pudvel-tor katelau bonds were known to be exceptional. She would have to find a sperm donor for T'Pol. She would not allow her daughter to die because of her bond. While one part of her mind focused on what would be appropriate to send to her daughter's mate, the other matter quickly came to the forefront of her mind. Who would be the most appropriate donor?


	10. Rule Book

Trip had been mostly hiding down in the Engine room, watching over the modifications to the warp drive while T'Pol, Archer, Phlox and Hoshi dealt with the medical emergency on Valakis. His expertise wasn't needed there and for once he was grateful. Checking the readings every few minutes didn't take very long and while he was waiting to do the next check he was reading up on Vulcans in their own database. Once he would have gotten a kick out of trying to figure out what they weren't saying. Now he was worried that he was going to miss some thing very important.

In fact he was still reading when T'Pol came to his quarters after her shift. After sitting her down in his only chair, Trip flopped down on his bunk. "My mom sent me a letter wanting to know if we were both ok with the bonding and if we were, what's your favorite color?" he said.

"I do not understand what significance my preferred color choices have to your maternal parent," T'Pol said startled. Even for Trip the question was not logical.

"Oh it's significant alright. My mother loves to do hand crafts even though she lives in Florida which is a place known for its hot weather. If we're both ok with the idea of being married, she's going to start on a wedding quilt for the two of us. Plus knowing her, she'll also be knitting socks or slippers or sweaters or some darned thing to keep you warm. She's convinced that space instillations and starships can't keep people warm enough." Trip sighed. "She made sure that I've had a new blanket for every duty station I've had off planet."

"She is correct, although I'm aware that my discomfort is more due to species differences than to the ineffectiveness of your machinery." T'Pol said.

"You're cold? Why didn't you say anything?" Trip said, jumping off his bunk.

T'Pol accurately read his intention of fixing what he saw as a problem. "I am a Vulcan; therefore temperatures that are comfortable for Humans are quite cool to me. However, to heat the ship to temperatures that I find comfortable is illogical as they would quickly prove to be detrimental to the rest of the crew." Trip nodded and started to pace. T'Pol could see the expression she was used to seeing when major malfunctions happened to parts of the ship, his 'problem solving' face she had heard it once described. "And my preferred colors are red and blue."

Trip nodded, made a note on his computer and continued to pace. T'Pol was glad to see him make the note, she knew that if he had not he would have forgotten the information. "Dr. Phlox asked for my advice on whether I believed that Ensign Cutler was capable of sustaining an interspecies relationship. I had to tell him that I did not know. Before I was made aware of our bonding I would have said that Humans were not emotionally mature enough to handle an interspecies relationship. But if that were true, we would not have bonded, and Ensign Cutler is more emotionally mature than you are."

Trip stopped pacing, the blueprints fleeing from his mind. "Emotionally immature?!? Is that how Vulcans see Humans? No wonder we're having such a hard time getting along lately. T'Pol, I seriously doubt you have ever met a Human who was emotionally immature. No one would subject a Vulcan to that knowingly. Oh they'd let kids hang around you but only in small doses. Kids don't know how to control their emotions and yes, we Humans do control ourselves, just not anywhere near what you Vulcans do!" He knew that T'Pol was now aware that Humans had to vent their emotions but he didn't really think that she fully understood.

"What are the signs that a Human is emotionally immature?" T'Pol asked curious. She had learned more about Humans in the last six months than most Vulcan sociologists had learned in decades.

"Never mind, if you stay on board long enough I'm sure Starfleet will be sending out an example sooner or later, just keep your eyes open to how other Humans react to the new recruits. That'll give you an idea. As for Cutler, she may be more serious than I am but she is not more emotionally mature. I'm just much more enthusiastic. I know I act like a big kid a lot of the time but that isn't necessarily being emotionally immature for a Human." Trip said. He walked back to his desk and sat on the edge. "Cutler will be able to handle a relationship if she wants one. Which one of them is coming on to the other?"

"I believe the attraction is mutual, although they both seem to be quite tentative. I do believe however that they will be able to make an amicable decision," T'Pol knew she was postponing her reason for coming to Trip's quarters but she was reluctant to speak about the letter and data package that her mother had sent them.

"Well they're both adults and most people would probably say they're more compatible than we are," Trip admitted. "Hey, I've been trying to study what the Vulcan database says about Vulcan culture and I've come across something I don't understand. Would you mind explaining what 'finger touching' means. I mean it seems to be something specific but the database doesn't go into any details, just that it's a sign that the Vulcans are married."

"As you are aware Vulcans are touch telepaths," T'Pol began, grateful for a somewhat neutral topic. "Because of this we do not touch except within certain very limited ways. For instance, when Spock greeted me it was with the touch we use between family members. It allowed both of us to determine that we were related and allowed Spock to check for our bond." She showed Trip the palm touch. "Normally this is used only between close family members. Spock is my sister's grandchild, or will be when he is born in this universe. This is the first touch we learn to use outside of our parent's marriage bond."

Trip scowled, focusing on understanding what she wasn't saying as much as she what she was. "You mean this is how you get to know your family's minds. You already know your parent's minds because as your parents they would always be touching you from the moment you're born. Like when they change your clothes as an infant or teach you to feed yourself."

"Yes," T'Pol nodded. "When it comes time for Vulcans to marry we must allow a near total stranger to touch us. It can be very disconcerting."

"That sounds like the understatement of the century to me, darlin'," Trip snorted.

T'Pol merely raised an eyebrow and continued her mate's education. "Finger touching is the first step and is a gesture used in public between bondmates." She extended two fingers towards him. Trip copied the gesture and T'Pol pressed her fingertips to his. "When our bond is stronger this will increase our connection."

Trip nodded. He also could feel a distant sort of tingling and wondered if that was T'Pol or just his imagination. 'It doesn't really matter,' he decided. 'Eventually we'll touch minds and it has to be a lot better than that Healer. Kind of like the difference between a doctor and a wife,' he guessed.

T'Pol decided that now that they were discussing Vulcan culture it would be a good time to give him the information packet her mother had sent. She wasn't about to give him a copy of the letter that accompanied it. In her distress over having to explain about her bond, she had neglected to inform her mother that the children were already conceived and merely awaited her time for implantation.

Before coming to Trip's quarters she had sent off a reply to her mother informing her that a donor would not be necessary. An alien genetic specialist had already performed the necessary genetic manipulation and that there were already twenty one zygotes ready for implantation in stasis, three times as many as she would need. The extras had been created to ensure that if unforeseen difficulties occurred, there would still be viable children to implant. T'Pol did not tell her mother that she had no objection to bearing more than a single child once every seven years. Trip's two brothers were twins, children conceived and born during the same pregnancy. T'Pol believed that multiple births would be welcomed by her mate but they had not discussed it yet. There was time for that. Her time would not come for another ten years or so.

T'Pol stood up and handed a data pad to Trip. "My mother has sent us information that you would have received from your father if you were Vulcan. I will leave you to study it." Then she left.

Trip smirked a bit at her abrupt departure but didn't blame her. He was beginning to learn just how private a people Vulcans were and the idea of her mother giving him 'The Talk', even long distance, had to be making her squirm. He'd let her do it in private. He took the pad over to his bunk. This was bound to be interesting and important. He'd better take notes.

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Trip was actually glad that Archer had asked him to come to Archer's quarters after dinner. Not only did his friend look like he needed to get something off his chest, Trip wasn't all that eager to go back to his Vulcan studies. T'Pol's mother T'Les had been very blunt and explicit in her descriptions. The thing that Trip had been grateful for was that they were also very clinical where Vulcan reproduction was concerned. He knew that it couldn't have been easy for T'Les to say any of it. It had to be the absolutely worst thing for them. They took a great deal of pride in their logic and this Pon Farr thing stripped them of it completely.

Archer waved his friend into a chair and slumped down into his own. "You know what happened right?" he asked. Trip simply nodded. This was a job that couldn't be assigned. Someone had to be a pressure valve for a Captain or the consequences were devastating. Here on Enterprise, the job was Trip's as Jon Archer's best friend. "Am I wimping out wanting a rule book now?" he asked.

"Hell no Jon! That was one hell of a decision you had to make," Trip said seriously. "We need a guide book. Unfortunately for you, you're the one stuck writing it."

"I'm not so sure I'm doing such a good job as an author," Archer admitted. "How many people did I sentence to death today?"

"You and Phlox bought them time Jon. Don't discount that. The fact is that the line has to be drawn somewhere. Interference in another planet's culture, people or politics can never end well. We shouldn't meddle. We will never know enough about the situation to make a good decision; at least not on a planetary scale. Look at what the Vulcans did to us! And I'm starting to figure out that they really have no clue what they did."

Archer nodded. As they spent more time out here and more time around T'Pol, he was beginning to lose his resentment and suspicions of Vulcans in general. And there was what Hoshi had said. "You're right about interfering Trip. It's just a lot easier when we're talking about politics or something like that. This was a medical emergency."

"You did the right thing Jon. You refused to play God and that is something that every starship captain should have burned into their brains. You know maybe you should take that old saying about writing the book literally. God knows that the best teacher is experience and the brass back home don't have squat." Trip said. "Look back at our first landing party. Although I'm glad that you didn't have the experience necessary to know that T'Pol and I shouldn't have both been there because our trip to the decon chamber got things started for us." He gave a leering grin that startled Archer into laughter and a better frame of mind. It didn't completely lift the burden off of the captain's shoulders but it did give him something else to think about. Not all the decisions Archer made would end in disaster and some would have unexpected benefits.


	11. Traditions

"Mama, do you have your knitting packed?" Elizabeth Tucker asked as she scurried into her parent's bedroom. The family was helping the older couple pack for their trip into space.

"Yes it's in my carryon," Catherine said flustered. She had gotten Trip's letter with not only T'Pol's colors but her sizes as well. He'd asked that she make T'Pol a pair of slippers and a wrap to help keep his fiancé warm when she was off duty as the ship was too cold for Vulcans as they came from a desert planet. The ship was perfect for Humans but environmental conditions that were good for her weren't good for Humans. She'd always told him that those ships were too cold for people.

She laid the carefully made and wrapped gifts in her suitcase. She had made a robe in a cross between the Vulcan fashion and something she'd seen in a museum once. She had chosen the softest, warmest fabric she could find, one guaranteed to hold in the heat. Then she had used the scraps to make a pair of slippers. Now she was working on a pair of socks made from baby alpaca yarn. While the robe and slippers were a royal blue color, the yarn was a variegated color that ran from a pale red through the color spectrum to a deep blue and back. She hoped T'Pol liked them.

Elizabeth was carrying the wedding quilt that her mother's quilting group had worked on. They had all been shocked when Catherine had announced the news of her son's engagement to a Vulcan woman he'd been serving with for the past six months. That hadn't stopped any of them from joining in to make the wedding quilt. Elizabeth had looked up Vulcan designs, trying to find something that would help her design something that would truly symbolize her brother's marriage. She had found the IDIC design. That was now worked in every other block in Earth's blue and roses in the desert colors of Vulcan were worked in the rest. She knew Trip would like it. She only hoped that T'Pol would as well.

"Is your father ready?" Catherine asked.

"Yes mama, he's waiting outside. The transport will be here any minute. He doesn't have any time to get involved fixing anything," Elizabeth soothed.

Catherine Tucker shuddered. She loved her husband with every fiber of her being but the simple fact was the man couldn't keep his hands out of machinery. And he always got dirty doing it too. Trip was the same way, had been from the time he could pick up his father's tools. "Here," she shoved the suitcase at her youngest. "Give those to him and make sure he has one of those engineering journals to keep him busy." She hurriedly packed the quilt and followed her daughter out to the front porch. Minutes later the Tucker children and grandchildren were waving goodbye as Charles and Catherine Tucker left to travel to their son's wedding.

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"This is completely unacceptable. If news of this breaks out it will undermine all that we have done for the past century." A Vulcan sat in a shadowed chair surrounded by other Vulcans. "We must undermine her reputation and silence her. She cannot be allowed to present her facts to the Vulcan people at large. If the public finds out about the listening post or her Pudvel-tor katelau with a Human they will demand a closer look at our dealings with Humans and other races. Our plans to return to the old ways and reunite with the Sundered will be destroyed. We must destroy her before she can destroy us." The others gathered in the room nodded.

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While Trip was reading about Vulcans, T'Pol was doing her own research with the help of Hoshi. Although she had some time to study, between her duties as First Officer and Science Officer, it wasn't as much as she would like. In addition she knew that there were subtleties to an alien culture that she simply could not learn on her own. She had to have help from someone who had learned the cultural significance from the age of a small child. "I do not understand this custom of 'engagement' Hoshi."

It had taken a detailed explanation from Hoshi of how in Human culture the type of mentoring position she was being asked to fill for T'Pol required an exchange of intimate information and thus it was important for them to use each other's first names before T'Pol would stop calling her Ensign. Hoshi considered that she had succeeded quite a feat. "The engagement period is to allow both families time to plan for the wedding and for the couple to grow closer if they follow the traditions of not engaging in physical intimacy before marriage. It is rather like the first year of a Vulcan marriage. As we are having the wedding here on Enterprise, your engagement is mostly just to allow time for your respective families to get here. We can actually have a wedding within 48 hours but that is considered to be extremely rushed, almost as bad as eloping."

"And eloping is bad," T'Pol concluded.

"Eloping is running off to get married and it depends upon the circumstances," Hoshi explained. "If you have at the very least cordial relations with your families, it is very rude. Weddings are family affairs and the more you get along with your family the more important it is for at least some of them to be there. That is why on Earth big formal weddings can have up to several hundred people in attendance. If this was a war time situation where it wasn't possible for anyone to get here, we'd have a small ceremony here and then have another one or at least a big reception when we got home. As its only possible to transport your mother and Trip's parents, his parents will probably want to do that the next time we get leave on Earth. What we'll do is have a selection of off duty people from both your departments, the bridge officers and your parents as witnesses and Captain Archer will perform the ceremony." She took another bite of her ice cream and noticed that T'Pol seemed to be enjoying her vegetarian version of the treat. It looked like a girl's night in at T'Pol's quarters was a good idea. Maybe she could introduce the Vulcan woman to the concept of sleepovers one day.

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"Dangnabit T'Pol it ain't like that!" Trip stormed as they walked into the mess hall. The mess hall was about halfway filled with crew members and T'Pol's sensitive hearing picked up several people making bets for Hoshi to record. She had once brought up the subject with Captain Archer and had been shocked to find out that he had already known about the gambling. She knew that gambling was against the regulations but she still didn't understand how he could go along with it or allow the crew to gamble on the outcome of two of his senior officers discussions. She understood even less how the outcome of each discussion was decided. She had decided to ignore it as Captain Archer seemed to.

"It is my understanding that it is a long standing Human custom," she said as she accepted her plate from Trip. "As your own family participates in this custom I do not understand your aversion to it."

"I said no T'Pol and that's final!" Trip marched over to a table and pulled out a chair for her. Hoshi watched the two from her corner and silently collected the bets that were being whispered in her ear as crewmen filed past her on their way out of the mess hall. She also nodded to those waving fingers at her behind the two arguing officer's backs. She couldn't believe that they were arguing this in public but it was typical of them. Once they started arguing with each other they tended to forget just where they were or who was around them unless they were in danger. She wondered what the argument was about this time.

T'Pol looked at the chair Trip was holding out for her in disgust. "I am perfectly capable of pulling out my own chair Charles and as you do participate in your culture's customs I still do not see your difficulties with this one." She set down her plate and sat down in the chair.

Trip sat down on his side of the table. "Mama raising me to be a gentleman has absolutely nothing to do with this." He started poking his fork in his lunch to avoid waving it at her. "It ain't gonna happen so just forget about it and you aren't going to change the subject by not calling me Trip either."

"It is the custom in both your family and your culture. We will follow it." T'Pol began her meal.

"No we ain't T'Pol!" Trip took a few more bites before continuing. "I still don't know why we gotta do this now. It's gonna be years before it becomes important."

"It is important because if something is to happen to either of us the decision will already be recorded and it will be honored," T'Pol pointed out as she ate. "Deep space missions are dangerous. As soon as the first ceremony is completed we will be sending some of them back to Vulcan and Earth. They need names should something happen to us."

"I said no and why are we following Human tradition on this? Why aren't you pushing for Vulcan traditions?" Trip asked.

'Names? What sort of names are they talking about and what are they sending back to their home planets?' Hoshi wondered. She noticed that they were both eating as quickly as they could even as they argued. 'They must have to go back to their offices after lunch,' she thought. 'They won't have time for arguing then.'

"Vulcans have few traditions in this matter," T'Pol said matter of factly.

"So what? I say we go with Vulcan traditions not Human ones at least as far as this Human one goes," Trip said determinedly.

"We will follow this Human tradition," T'Pol said not budging an inch as she got up from the table, her soup finished.

Trip got up and followed her, his lunch done as well. They turned in their dishes and as they walked out of the mess hall Hoshi could clearly hear Trip say, "I don't care T'Pol. We aren't naming one of the boys Charles Tucker the Fourth!"


	12. By the skin of their teeth

Jon Archer should have realized that this was inevitable. Admiral Gardner was a stickler for adhering to the rules and thus a visit from said Admiral was bound to happen as soon as he received the reports about Trip and T'Pol being bonded. The good news was that this visit was officially unofficial. T'Pol hadn't understood that reasoning. Archer had been hard put to explain that it meant that while Gardner was here he was strictly a civilian but that anything he did or said here could still end up being official if they gave him reason to make it official. That meant that while there was potential for trouble, they weren't in trouble yet. What they had to do was keep it that way.

He met the Admiral at the airlock and personally escorted him to the VIP quarters. The Admiral stowed his gear and waved Archer to a seat while he took one as well. "Alright Jon, you are going to explain this bonding thing to me in small words and then you're going to tell me just why I should go along with it." Archer sighed; this was going to take a while.

Meanwhile Malcolm was helping Hoshi with her target practice, a rather flirty encounter that was cut short by both of them being called to the bridge. There was a class nine gas giant to explore. When they arrived on the bridge they did no more than glance at the out of uniform Admiral in their midst and simply proceeded with their own duties. 'Ours is not to reason why,' they both thought, although it was very easy to guess as to the reason for his presence. The man couldn't stop staring at Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol like they were bugs under glass. Fortunately protocol was to ignore any superior officer out of uniform unless he was on his own ship. In an emergency no one cared what a person was wearing.

Captain Archer was glad for the protocol as well because he was soon swept up in an encounter with a group of Klingons. He had one belligerent Klingon woman in sickbay and others on board her ship that was about to be crushed along with three of his officers, he didn't have time to be dealing with having an Admiral aboard officially. Later he would realize that this small crisis, (no one was shooting at them after all) was actually perfect timing. With T'Pol being one of the trapped officers and Trip being stuck on the ship, the situation gave Gardner a first hand glimpse of how they would act and react when one was in danger. Gardner was of the opinion that married couples should not be on board the same ship.

However the old rules and regulations regarding such things did not take into consideration aliens or space travel. Vulcan bondmates served together, their mental bond making the very idea of serving apart almost blasphemy to them and Archer wasn't sure that it wasn't literally. There was also the fact that eventually, once Starfleet had more than a single starship exploring deep space the missions would become longer and longer. Archer could foresee a time when missions could last years, maybe even decades, although wouldn't be for years yet. Archer just hoped that Gardner would be able to see the writing on the wall.

Gardner, who was no fool even if the people around him saw him as a hide bound idiot, made himself as small as possible and stuck to lurking in the background. It was the best place to carry out his mission, which was to find out if he needed to have Tucker transferred or otherwise dealt with. He had never been totally confident that the publicly admitted trouble magnet should have been allowed off the planet. The only reason that he had gone along with it was that Lt. Reed was a fantastic officer and Commander Tucker was the finest Engineer they had. Reed's ability to keep situations from exploding and his by the book attitude made him the perfect man to baby-sit Tucker in Gardner's opinion. He still didn't really understand how it was possible that Tucker had found himself engaged to the Vulcan woman without knowing about it but then Vulcans were reticent bastards. He never could get them to talk about a lot of things that were important.

Sitting back and watching provided him with information that he hadn't expected to get. He had known that Archer was a good Captain and had more experience with aliens than anyone else in a command position in the fleet. But he hadn't known that the job demanded such flexibility and willingness to go with what worked. While he might, at a stretch, have thought of using reverse psychology on the Klingon woman, he never would have figured out a way for the Klingons to save face over the incident.

Later in the Captain's mess he talked to Archer over the some of the best bbq ribs he'd ever had. "You've got yourself a good crew Jon. The SubCommander did a good job over there and Tucker did his job without demanding to be the one to rescue his girl. I'm not so sure I could have done that."

"They're both professionals sir," Archer said. "They would never give anything but their best. Being bonded to each other isn't going to change that."

"I'm beginning to see that," Gardner admitted. "There is so much we still don't understand about Vulcans, even after knowing them for so long, not to mention the rest of the universe out here. I know that it is just going to take time, time and experience like what your crew is getting." He snorted, "I just wish it wasn't like Tucker is getting but the simple truth is I know that's not going to happen. As soon as we started seeing aliens as people, just ones with different bodies and cultures and the like, it was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Yes sir and I've already been hearing rumors about more possible romances among my crew. Not all of them have talked about couples that were both Human." Archer wasn't about to tell him about the time he had been semi forced to kiss an alien to keep from being discovered during a landing party.

"I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here Jon. I've seen that Tucker can handle his duties even when his wife is in danger and the SubCommander is Vulcan so there isn't any problem with her emotions overriding her head. But I still want to transfer Tucker back to Earth space." Gardner held up his hand to stop the explosion he could see building on Archer's face.

"I said I want to but the simple fact is I can't. We don't have anyone who could take either of their places out here and that's a fact. We are going to have to grow our own ship crews and Tucker and T'Pol are a big part of that. I can't ship them back to Earth or to Vulcan for that matter, without seriously endangering our plans for future ships. Columbia should be ready to launch in the next year, year and a half. I'm going to need some of your crew to transfer when she's ready. Most likely I'll be taking your seconds of each department to head up the departments on Columbia or to give the heads of those departments someone to lean on. We need experienced officers and crew on all of our ships. Enterprise is our sink or swim baby. Everyone of your crew is going to end up in a command position somewhere unless they can't hack it and from what I've seen over the last couple of days that isn't going to be the case. Your people are good Jon and they're getting better." Gardner shrugged, "So when's the wedding or haven't they made any announcements yet?"

"Well the wedding will be as soon as their parents can get here," Archer said, more relaxed now that Gardner had admitted he couldn't afford to reassign Trip. He didn't have the authority to reassign T'Pol but he really could have done his best to screw everyone else up by adhering to the rules and regs. Archer also didn't want to have to point out the flaws in any reasoning Gardner might have given. It wasn't a good idea to point out that a higher ranking officer was being an idiot. "As for making an announcement to the crew, well, does arguing over their children's names count?" he asked with a grin.

Gardner gapped at him while Archer nodded. "Dr. McCoy from the 1701 genetically engineered some children for them. Trip is absolutely adamant that they will not be naming one of the boys after him. T'Pol is just as stubborn as he is and she's determined that they will. The argument has gone to the 'yes we are and no we're not' stage."

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"Captain Sopek," T'Les greeted the Vulcan Captain as he met her at his ship's airlock.

"Lady T'Les, how may I be of service?"

"The Ni'Var is scheduled to make a stop at Coridan. I require transport to that area of space," T'Les said calmly.

"The Ni'Var is at your service Lady T'Les. Follow me to the guest quarters," Sopek was curious of course. There were few things that would take this Lady off of Vulcan and none that he knew in Coridan space.

"Captain I require silence as to my presence on board as well as my destination. There are those who do not believe that I should leave Vulcan under any circumstances." Lady T'Les did not agree with that view Sopek could see. "I have a family duty to take care of and I will not allow others to dictate a course of action that will not allow me to fulfill that duty."

"It shall be as you require Lady T'Les," Sopek answered. He did not have enough information to form a theory. That did not stop him from speculating to himself as to what family duty could take this woman of all the women on Vulcan to Coridan space.


	13. A Lot of Ground to Cover

A/N: Because there are a lot of things happening in this chapter it is broken up into smaller scenes more than usual. I apologize for the shortness of each section. The entire chapter is my usual length, but there was a lot of ground to cover.

Trip was fairly certain that the entire ship knew by now that something was up between him and T'Pol after their public argument over the children's names. Gossip was the only thing faster than warp speed and Enterprise wasn't that big a ship. "Hess, call a meeting. I have an announcement for everyone in Engineering." From the grin on his second's face, he was right. Rumors must be running rampant all over the ship.

It didn't take long for every Engineer on board that wasn't doing something that couldn't be left for a few minutes to gather in Main Engineering. Trip stood up on the catwalk where everyone could see and hear him. Leaning on the railing he could see the grins and nudges his people were giving each other. "Ok, I can see the rumor mill has been working over time," he said. "Number one, no T'Pol is not pregnant."

Trip waited while bets were paid off and the usual ruckus died down. "Number two, yes we were arguing over our children's names. The SubCommander and I are engaged and the wedding is scheduled for next month or as soon as our folks can get here whichever comes first. Dr. McCoy from the 1701 genetically engineered us some children. They are currently at the zygote stage and are in stasis. Ok people, that's it. Get back to work." He watched amused as his people wandered back to their stations. God only knew what they'd come up with now.

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Captain Archer had been stunned to get the letter from Soval and Admiral Forrest. From everything he had learned about the bond between T'Pol and Trip they were required to stay together until they were married by a Vulcan priest. The Vulcan marriage ceremony did something to the bond that solidified it or something, made it unbreakable. So why were they sending a ship to take T'Pol back to Vulcan? Yes the Vulcan High Command blamed them for the destruction of the sanctuary at P'Jem but it didn't make sense that they would take T'Pol away from Trip. Taking her away from the Enterprise, yes that made sense, but not taking her away from her bondmate.

"I don't understand it," Trip said as he tossed the PADD down on Archer's desk. "They're recalling T'Pol back to Vulcan but not me? I know Forrest would have let them have me if they'd asked."

"I will not be reassigned," T'Pol said calmly. Trip looked at her worriedly, he hoped she was right.

"T'Pol, I don't think you understand. They already have. The ship they're sending is already on its way. They'll be here in two days to pick you up," Archer said softly. He really didn't understand how she could be so sure. "I know that you don't think they'll do this but they have. Someone is pissed off at us because of what happened at P'Jem."

"Vulcans do not get,,, pissed Captain," T'Pol reminded him. Trip snorted but remained otherwise silent. "I believe it is far more likely that they are not aware of my bonding to Trip and thus are concerned for my health. My actions over the last several months could be construed as symptoms of mental illness, including my session with the Healer. The situation can and will be rectified shortly."

"Well I hope you're right. We've got a few days before the Ni'Var shows up. Would you go with me to check out Coridan, T'Pol? I know that they've been dealing with Vulcans for a while now," Archer asked. T'Pol agreed and together the three of them continued with ship's business.

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'This was not how things were supposed to go,' Trip thought bleakly. He was sitting in sickbay holding T'Pol's hand while she was in a healing trance. His fiancé was not supposed to be nearly on her deathbed right before their wedding. She wasn't supposed to be hurt at all. He had been teaching her to dance the waltz, both because it was a way to further strengthen their bond and because it would be expected of them. Hoshi had planned a reception and dance after the ceremony. The crew was going all out to get everything ready and now no one knew if she would recover or not.

It was almost enough to make him want to go back down there and rip the guy who had shot her apart. But she needed him here, Phlox had said. According to him, bondmates healed better and faster when one was touching the other. So here he sat holding her hand and hoping for the best. He'd let Jon handle everything else for now. T'Pol had to be his priority.

"I do not understand," Sopek said. "How can they be bondmates?" He looked over at the Vulcan woman on the biobed and the Human man sitting next to her and holding her hand. The information Archer had given him had shocked him. He had been shocked enough by the information on exactly why the monastery at P'Jem had been destroyed but the information that T'Pol was bondmates with a Human had him nearly numb.

Archer shrugged. "I was told that it was something that happens when extremely compatible minds encounter one another. T'Pol wasn't married and I've known from the moment they met that Trip had fallen hard for her." He too watched the unlikely couple, hoping that things were going better than they looked.

Sopek was not sure what that meant but he had studied the English language enough to know that it was more than likely Archer did not mean that Command Tucker had literally fallen. This situation shed new light on his illustrious passenger. "Do they have plans to marry?" he asked.

Archer nodded, "As soon as their parents can get here. We're expecting the Tuckers to arrive any time now and T'Pol's mother as well. When they do, we'll perform the first wedding ceremony here on Enterprise. They will have a second ceremony on Vulcan the next time we're there."

"Why two ceremonies?" Sopek asked.

"The first will be Human and the second will be Vulcan, both done traditionally. That was the compromise that they worked out. Neither one of them wanted to deny their families a traditional ceremony." Archer explained quietly. "Besides it is my understanding that the Vulcan ceremony is necessary for their bond. No one is going to object to that, least of all Trip."

Sopek nodded, 'This then was the family duty Lady T'Les spoke of. Now I can break my silence regarding her presence.' "Captain Archer, Lady T'Les is a passenger aboard my ship. I had assumed that Lady T'Pol was ill and would need her mother's presence on the journey back to Vulcan. I am pleased that this is not the case. I will inform Lady T'Les of her daughter's condition and bring her across to Enterprise."

"Thank you very much," Archer said surprised. "I'll be waiting for her." 'That is certainly a far nicer duty than waiting here to find out if T'Pol is going to live or not and if she's going to take Trip with her if she goes.' Shaking the morbid thought firmly out of his mind Archer escorted Sopek back to the shuttle bay.

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Sopek waited while Lady T'Les reviewed the information that he had given her regarding the listening post at P'Jem and Archer and T'Pol's actions there. He had already explained that he had been sent here to take T'Pol back to Vulcan and the condition she was now in. "This is, disturbing," T'Les finally said. "I have not taken part in politics for sometime as I saw no need for it. Perhaps I was mistaken."

She stood up and adjusted her robes. "T'Pol will not be removed from her bondmate nor will she be removed from Enterprise. The information you have brought me shows that she is performing an admirable service for both of our species. What have you told Captain Archer about me?"

"Only that I believed Lady T'Pol was ill and needed your presence for the return trip to Vulcan," Sopek said. He hoped that he had chosen the correct course of action.

"That is excellent. The Humans are unaware of my position on Vulcan and must remain so for my daughter to continue to be effective in completing her duties on board Enterprise. The Ni'Var will remain until my daughter's wedding ceremony is finished. Then we will return to Vulcan. Upon our arrival you will turn this information over to the High Council, not the High Command."

"I would consider it an honor if your command crew were to attend my daughter's wedding with me Captain," T'Les said turning towards more pleasant matters.

"We would be honored, Lady T'Les. I will inform my crew of the change in plans and allow you to prepare for transport to the Human ship." Sopek paused for a moment. "If you will forgive my forwardness my Lady, you might wish to prepare a nose numbing agent. The Humans possess a rather strong odor."

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"Captain, the Ni'Var is launching its shuttle and I am receiving a hail from the Wandering Lady. Commander Tucker's parents are on board their shuttle and they are ready to launch as soon as we give them clearance to do so," Hoshi said over the intercom.

"Why do they need our clearance?" Archer asked puzzled.

"It's a boomer thing I think," Hoshi answered. "They're treating us like a space station because we're landing more than one ship's shuttle."

"All right Hoshi, make sure that they're given what they need. I'll wait here with T'Pol's mother until they're aboard," Archer said before signing off. He ran through the guest arrangements in his head one more time. Admiral Gardner was still on board, having decided to stay for the wedding. The Tuckers were coming on board and would be staying until the Admiral left. They would return to Earth with him. T'Pol's mother, T'Les would be coming over from the Ni'Var. He had no idea how long T'Les would be staying. Add in the fact that T'Pol hadn't woken up and Archer was beginning to wonder if anything was going to go right with this wedding.

The Vulcan shuttle landed first. Sopek was the first to disembark, followed by two female Vulcans. Sopek led them over to where Archer was waiting for them. "Captain Archer, this is Lady T'Les and her attendant Lady T'Lan."

"Welcome on board Enterprise Lady T'Les, Lady T'Lan," Archer said with a short bow. He thought that his usual short nod would be more impolite with anyone introduced as 'Lady'. "Commander Tucker's parents are on board the next shuttle. I can have your bags taken to your quarters while we wait for them," he offered. "Then we can all go up to up to sickbay. Dr. Phlox's latest update says that T'Pol's healing trance is progressing well."

"That is acceptable Captain Archer," T'Les said. When Archer motioned over a crewman to take the two bags T'Lan was carrying however, T'Lan merely indicated that she would follow. Archer knew enough by now about Vulcans not to worry about it. They waited in silence while the Vulcan shuttle launched and the Human shuttle landed.

T'Les observed the Human captain, noting the large grin that spread across his face as two older Humans embarked from the Human ship's shuttle. "Mr. and Mrs. Tucker!" Archer called out. 'It appears that he has close ties to the Tucker family,' she thought.

"JON! Oh it's so good to see you!" Catherine called. T'Les and Sopek watched as Archer was pulled into a group hug and all three Humans erupted into a confusing babble. Apparently it soon sorted itself out as the Vulcans had no idea how the Humans understood any of it. The baggage was sent off to the guest quarters. Then they found themselves being escorted down to sickbay, the Humans talking the entire way. T'Les found it quite curious that her youngest daughter had bonded with a member of this species. They were very, strange.


	14. Healing Trances Suck!

A/N: Vulcans + surgery healing trance. With that equation going through my head, this is what came out.

Trip couldn't believe his ears. "Are you telling me you're going to have to hit her to make her come out of this?" he started off calm but was shouting by the end of his sentence.

"Please calm down Commander Tucker. She can not only hear you but sense you through your bond. While I do appreciate just how difficult it is for you to hear this, it is the only way to reorient the SubCommander after a healing trance." Phlox did understand. The idea of hitting T'Pol wasn't an easy one for him and the thought of anyone striking one of his own wives was stomach turning. "I'm sorry Commander. I do not look forward to giving this treatment but it is medically necessary."

Trip sighed and rubbed his face with the hand that wasn't clutching T'Pol's. He knew that Phlox would never suggest something like this unless it really was a medical treatment. Phlox was a good doctor and Trip trusted him. He just really didn't like the thought of anyone hitting T'Pol for any reason. "Alright," he conceded. "You know more about this healing trance than I do. I just hope she won't have to do this a whole lot. I'm not sure I can stand to watch this again."

"As do I Commander," Phlox said, patting him on the shoulder. "Although I love the challenge of my position here on Enterprise there are things I truly hate about it as well."

"How soon?" Trip asked. He told himself that he should be glad that Phlox was gearing them both up to doing this. It meant that T'Pol would be waking up soon, hopefully fully recovered.

"From these readings I would say she should begin to awaken within the next few minutes," Phlox said moving to the other side of the biobed. "Under other circumstances you would be expected to be the one to do this." Trip choked and Phlox made a calming motion at him. "I do understand your reluctance Commander. I have three wives of my own and the thought of striking one is sickening. But as you are SubCommander T'Pol's bondmate you are the one person she trusts the most to do only what is necessary and no more."

When he put it like that, Trip could see his point. It was a heck of a thing to have to trust someone with. He leaned over T'Pol and lightly traced the point of her ear. She hadn't let him do that yet, they were still only just past the hand holding stage, but he'd wanted to do it for very long time. "How hard should I hit her?" he asked. He just had to think of it like a kind of Vulcan first aid. CPR hurt like the devil and this wasn't supposed to be any different.

"Are you sure?" Phlox asked, pleased that Trip was willing but wanting to make sure that he could go through with it.

"She needs me to do it and as long as it isn't going to actually hurt her I'll do what I have to." Trip spoke softly to T'Pol, "The doc says that you can hear me, so listen up. I don't like this. In fact I hate it and I never want to do this ever again. So you need to wake up and promise me that I won't have to."

"Strike her across the face with your open hand no harder than you would give a child a hard spanking across the buttocks," Phlox instructed. "She will tell you when she needs you to strike. She will also stop you when she no longer needs the stimulation." Trip nodded and chewed on his lip.

They both watched her face for any sign of her awakening. They were soon rewarded with a slight frown and blinking eyes. T'Pol abruptly sat up. Without letting go of Trip she swung her legs over the side of the biobed and said, "Strike me." Trip complied, although not without wincing, just as Archer led Mr. and Mrs. Tucker, T'Les and Captain Sopek into sickbay.

Phlox immediately hurried over, knowing that Commander Tucker had things well in hand. He could also tell that Captain Archer and the two older Humans that he had not yet met were shocked at Commander Tucker's actions. He had to make certain that they didn't interrupt the treatment. That would be worse than not starting the treatment at all. He knew he didn't have to worry about Captain Sopek or the Vulcan woman with him.

"What the hell!?!" Charles Tucker Jr. couldn't believe his eyes. His son was slapping a young Vulcan woman across the face! He had better have a damned good explanation or he was going to take his son across his knee!

Catherine could only stand in shock for the first few seconds, and then she started to get angry. No son of hers was going to be going around hitting women no matter if she was Human or not!

Archer's first thought was that something on Coridan had done something to Trip. He and Charles started forward only for Phlox to step between them and grab their arms. "Phlox what," he stared to ask.

Phlox interrupted him, "It's a necessary medical treatment. Please don't interfere or you may damage SubCommander T'Pol's mental pathways permanently!" His words stopped Archer and the Tuckers in their tracks.

T'Les watched and came to the conclusion that Humans must not have an equivalent to the Vulcan healing trance. The Human male who was administering the necessary blows to her daughter must be Commander Tucker. She could not see his face from this angle but from what she could see of his uniform he did have the correct rank. From the way he avoided watching his blows she theorized that violence against either females in general or mates in particular was taboo in his culture. And yet he was performing his duty as T'Pol's bondmate. He could have had the doctor do it. 'A promising beginning,' she thought.

Captain Sopek had decided that he was not going to attempt to predict the Human's behavior. He did not have enough information and what information he did have was constantly being contradicted by the Humans that he had met so far.

They were silent enough to hear T'Pol say "Again!" Trip struck once more without looking. Three more times T'Pol said, "Again!" and three more times Trip slapped her across the face. Finally she looked up at Trip. "That is sufficient, thank you."

"Doc?" Trip called and Phlox hurried over to examine his patient. He motioned her to lie back down and proceeded to examine her. Trip stepped back and tried to hold onto his composure. It wasn't working. The combination of relief, worry and fear had him shaking. "Don't you ever do that again," he said softly. He knew that she could hear him.

"Healing trances are necessary," T'Pol began but Trip put two fingers over her mouth.

"Commander you are interfering with my scans," Phlox pointed out.

Trip scowled but removed his fingers. "That's not what I meant and you know it!" he hissed. "Don't go jumping in front of plasma bullets!"

"Captain Sopek would have been killed," T'Pol pointed out frostily in an almost silent whisper. She did not want to have this discussion in front of their parents. She had recognized Mr. and Mrs. Tucker from Trip's pictures. She tried to ignore the emotions that Trip was broadcasting so loudly across their bond. Between the strength behind them and his proximity she could feel them clearly, although they were hopelessly confused.

"You didn't have to take the bullet for him T'Pol. There were other options. I'm sure you know them all better than I do." Trip paused and the emotions that T'Pol was sensing from him suddenly came into focus. A shot of pure fear ran through her before she could block it. Along with the fear she heard Tip say, "I saw him shoot you T'Pol," in a choked voice.

As Trip stopped talking, his emotional broadcasting dropped to the level she had become accustomed to. He had feared for her life, she realized. He had spent every moment she had been in the healing trance at her side, not knowing if she would survive. The knowledge made her next remark more gentle than it would have been otherwise. "I had not realized that you would become this distressed at my injuries. I knew that it would not be pleasant for you but I did not expect the strength of your reaction. I will be more careful in the future."

Trip sighed, relieved. "That's all I'm askin' darlin'. I know you have your duties and I'm not askin' for you to stop doing them, just be more careful when you do."

T'Pol tilted her head, looking up at him. "Is this 'venting'?" she asked.

Trip couldn't help but snigger and nod at her question. It was so typical of her to want to be able to explain his reactions even when she knew the cause. Her curiosity knew no bounds. It was so good to see her alive, well and trying to figure him out. He just wished that they had gotten to the point where she was comfortable enough with his mind that he could hug her. Sometimes this inching towards physical intimacy stuff really sucked, especially when all he really wanted to do was just hold her.

Dr. Phlox had heard the entire conversation. He was glad that they had made it through this crisis and its subsequent revelations as well as they had. It was the first really big adjustment that the couple had been forced to make as far as he was aware. Their reactions boded well for their future together. "All done, you are fit and cleared for duty SubCommander. I suggest however that both of you rest before your next duty shift. Besides, you both have visitors." Cleared to leave sickbay, Trip and T'Pol headed over to see their parents.


	15. The 'rents and the Wedding!

The VIP quarters on Enterprise were small suites with a bedroom, bath and sitting room. Trip knew which one had been set aside for his parents and went there after a quick stop at his quarters to clean up. He hadn't left sickbay from the time he and the others had returned from Coridan and he hadn't had a chance to shower or change his uniform. He wasn't sure just what kind of reception he was going to get. While his parents knew that T'Pol was Vulcan and he knew that they had been studying Vulcan culture, Trip wasn't thrilled that their first real experience with Vulcans had been the scene in sickbay.

Charles opened the door and motioned Trip into the suite. "We need to talk son," he said sternly.

"I know Dad, that's why I'm here," Trip said. He saw that his mother was sitting on the small couch under the porthole. She was knitting furiously and he tried his best not to wince. Catherine Tucker did fabric crafts for fun and to keep her fingers nimble. Knitting was also her form of meditation. From the fast way she was knitting Trip knew that she was very upset. "I'm sorry you had to see that Momma."

"But you're not sorry you did it?" she wanted to know. Her needles never stopped.

Trip sighed; this was going to be harder than he thought. "I'm sorry I needed to do it Momma," he tried to explain. "I never want to have to do that again. But it was necessary for me to do it. That is the only way to bring a Vulcan out of a healing trance and it was my responsibility to do that for T'Pol."

"What's a healing trance and why was she in it to begin with?" Charles asked. He sat on the arm of the couch next to Catherine and crossed his arms. Trip had better have a better explanation than 'it was medically necessary' to hit T'Pol.

"T'Pol is Jon's first officer and she's also the one person on board with the most deep space experience. While a lot of the area we've been exploring out here is new to all of us, some of the planets we've stopped at are known to Vulcans. Coridan is one of the later. Jon went down to Coridan and he took T'Pol with him, leaving me in charge here on Enterprise. None of us knew that Coridan is in the middle of a civil war, one side being backed by the Vulcans and one side being backed by the Andorians."

Trip sighed, "It's a real mess down there and they walked right into it. Lieutenant Reed and I went down to get them out and so did Captain Sopek with a few of his security people. We all ended up in a fire fight but T'Pol was hurt the worst. She deliberately took a plasma bullet for Captain Sopek. She saved his life and Dr. Phlox saved hers. When Vulcans are badly injured or they require surgery they go into something called a healing trance. I don't know the details; just that it allows them to focus their energy on healing the injured area. Phlox explained to me that a Vulcan needs help to come out of the trance."

"So hitting her was helping her?" Catherine asked scornfully.

"Yes and as T'Pol's bondmate it is my responsibility to be the one to provide that help. Dr. Phlox is a good man and a great doctor," Trip told her earnestly. "He offered to provide the necessary stimulation as they call it so I wouldn't have to. But you taught me not to back down from my responsibilities and I wasn't about to start with the very first time I was asked to act like a Vulcan bondmate for T'Pol. She trusted me to do the job and to make sure it was done right without hurting her. I know that there are going to be a lot of times that I'll need to act like a Vulcan for her. Hopefully I won't be asked to do something that awful again. The only way I could get through with it was to think of it as Vulcan first aid."

Catherine's needles started to slow. "It really was necessary?"

"Yes Momma. In some ways Vulcans are really different from us, although they aren't in others. I'm still learning and I probably will be my entire life." Trip watched as they began to absorb just how different Vulcans were. He knew that they would have been focusing their concerns on the idea that Vulcans didn't have emotions. His mother in particular would have been worried about his becoming married to a woman who not only didn't love him but never could. He had hopes of teaching them how wrong that was but they had to get through this first. This incident would be showing them how different Vulcans were physically beyond the pointed ears and green blood.

"Are you sure you want to marry this woman Trip?" Charles asked. The more he learned about Vulcans the more concerned he got. Who knew what else this woman would be having him do and where it would lead?

Trip smiled, thinking back on his and T'Pol's argument over the children's names and their discussion in sickbay. "Yeah Dad, I'm sure. She's a wonderful woman and the more I learn about her the more fascinated I get. Of course, she's as stubborn as a Missouri mule but even our arguments are fun." It was the last that finally reassured the Tuckers that Trip was indeed in love with T'Pol and that he had only done what was necessary for her health. He would never have said that their arguments were fun if they had involved violence. They also knew that as long as he was in love with her he would go through with marrying her. Trip may have said that his bride to be was as stubborn as a mule but that was a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black!

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Having showered and changed into her civilian clothes, T'Pol was sitting in her mother's quarters drinking tea with her mother and her mother's attendant. T'Lan had been a part of her family for as long as T'Pol could remember, having begun her service when T'Les assumed the position of Clan Mother. They had brought Vulcan Spice Tea, knowing that T'Pol probably hadn't had any for a while and that it was her favorite. "Captain Sopek informed me of your actions. You have carried out your duties in an exemplary manner." T'Les said.

T'Pol bowed her head in acknowledgement and waited for the other shoe to drop. She was momentarily distracted by the thought, but realized that it was only that she had begun to incorporate a few of Trip's favorite sayings into her mental landscape. "I had been concerned that Commander Tucker would not be able to fulfill his duties as your bondmate."

'There it was,' T'Pol thought. "Trip is more than capable and we have been able to compromise on many subjects, although not without vigorous discussion."

T'Les nodded. "I have observed that he has done his duty to you even when it was repulsive to him. It is a fine beginning." T'Pol was merely grateful that T'Les had not entered sickbay earlier. Her mother would have seen Trip caressing her ear. She was going to have to explain to Trip just why he should never touch her ears in public again. Thinking about it now, she should have realized that she was responding to Trip as her bondmate when she had allowed him to coat her ears in decon gel. She could have coated them herself. She wondered if Humans had places on their bodies that were as sensitive as Vulcan ears were. "His parents did not seem to be pleased however," T'Les said.

"I am certain it is only because they were not aware of the necessity of Trip's actions. They will understand once he has had a chance to explain why such actions are necessary to them. They have done their best to raise Trip to be an honorable man and they have succeeded." T'Pol explained.

"Your letter stated that you intended to follow Vulcan tradition for the first year of your marriage. Has Commander Tucker agreed to this?" T'Les asked. She did not want her daughter to be pushed into intimacy that she was not ready for. From what she had been told Humans were a very promiscuous species.

"He has agreed, although like with most things we have had to compromise. He will be moving into my quarters after our wedding. But we have already begun to increase our awareness of each other. We will be dancing at the reception after the wedding and the activity requires more touch than I would normally be able to accept on my wedding day." She was not going to mention that they had also begun neuropressure sessions. Her mother did not need to know that.

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The only room on Enterprise big enough to hold the wedding was the mess hall once it had been emptied of about half the tables. T'Les had been instructed on her role in the wedding and was trying to help T'Pol into the Human style wedding dress, along with Hoshi and Catherine Tucker. The dress itself was simple enough to understand but T'Les was baffled by the veil.

"I do not understand the reasoning behind this item," T'Les said holding the veil in her hands.

"These days it is simply a part of the dress," Catherine explained, "just like the garter and the flowers she'll be holding. Almost everything involved in a wedding has centuries of traditions and adaptations of other traditions behind them. I believe the veil was originally made to hide the identity of the bride, either from demons or her family's enemies, I'm not sure which."

"I can see the flowers but what is a garter?" T'Les asked. This wedding was more confusing than she had imagined when she had been given the details of what was expected of her.

"Garters used to hold up a woman's stockings," Hoshi explained. "Now a single garter is used in the tradition of fortune telling who will be the next man to be married. No one believes in the fortune but it is a fun tradition. The flowers are used in much the same way for the women."

"It's time," Hess stuck her head in to announce and cut off yet another question T'Les would have asked. T'Les settled the veil on T'Pol's hair and Catherine handed her the bouquet. Then they walked to the entrance of the mess hall and waited for Hess and Catherine to slip in and take their seats.

Standing in front of Archer, Trip tugged at the collar of his dress uniform. He still didn't know if T'Pol was going to be wearing her dress uniform or not. Hoshi wouldn't tell him and neither would Malcolm. He had no opinion either way, he was certain that she would look beautiful no matter what she wore.

Then the music started and he turned to watch the ladies come down the aisle. He had not seen T'Pol since she had been released from sickbay. Hoshi and his mother had been determined that they would not see each other before the wedding. As Hoshi laughingly explained, Trip had enough bad luck for both of them, they didn't need any more.

Hoshi wore her dress uniform and somehow made it look like she had spent a fortune at a custom dressmaker's. "Dear Lord!" whispered Malcolm. Trip barely glanced at her. He was too busy trying to get his first glimpse of T'Pol to realize just how taken Malcolm was with the Maid of Honor. Then the two Vulcan women started down the aisle. Trip barely glanced at the traditional robes that T'Les was dressed in. He was completely floored by the vision of T'Pol in white silk.

Her dress was as demure as a Victorian maiden's; with a two inch high collar, sleeves that came down to her wrists and a floor length skirt that was covered in some type of lace. She was the most beautiful thing Trip had ever seen. He could clearly see her face through her cloud like veil, (and where in the world had they found the materiel he wondered?) that flowed down from under a circlet made from something white.

So absorbed in watching T'Pol, Trip almost missed the ceremony. T'Les handed T'Pol to him and answered Archer's ceremonial question before sitting down next to T'Lan and Captain Sopek. Trip didn't hear a word; all he could do was stand there in awe until T'Pol grew annoyed at his lack of attention to the ceremony and pinched him. He started and came back to himself just as Archer asked him if he was willing to take T'Pol as his wife. For him there was only one answer, "I do," and he once more let himself pay more attention to T'Pol than to the ceremony.

Finally Malcolm, seeing that Trip wasn't paying attention to anything other than T'Pol, pried his hand away from hers when Archer asked for the rings. That part of the ceremony went off as planed; although the kiss was the most modest he had ever seen. It looked like he had lost a sizeable bet to Hoshi. He could have sworn the old boy would have really laid one on her, Vulcan or not.


	16. The Reception

A/N: To my everlasting shame, my muse gave me a song fic chapter! Here's the reception and the song is Disney's Beauty and the Beast from the movie. I do not know who wrote it but Angela Lansbury sang it and Disney owns it.

Chief had outdone himself with the foods for the reception. The menu was vegetarian with everything from edible Earth flowers to traditional Vulcan wedding foods to an enormous cake that had frosting that wasn't too sweet for the Vulcan guests to eat. Catherine was in her element, recording the entire event to take home for the rest of the family to watch.

The reception traditions went off without a hitch. The eating of the cake was done with decorum, much to some of the younger crew's disgust. They had wanted to see at least one of the senior officers with cake all over their face. T'Pol threw her bouquet and Hoshi caught it, much to the envy of most of the women. Trip was of the silent opinion that T'Pol had done it deliberately. He was sure that making the calculations for such a shot would be easy for her. And Hoshi had done so much hard work in getting this wedding planned, including tutoring the bride.

When it came time for Trip to fling the garter, most of the men were disappointed to see her hand it to him. She had been wearing it, not around her thigh, but around her wrist. She had pointed out to Hoshi that for a Vulcan, it was far closer to the most intimate part of her body, her mind. Hoshi had laughingly agreed. T'Pol hadn't known why Hoshi had laughed but as soon as Trip took the garter she heard the men groaning and laughing. She surmised that for some reason they had wanted to see her thighs. Humans could be so odd at times.

The wedding presents were generally small objects, an artifact that someone had picked up here or there, a copy of an Engineering text that Trip didn't have or a Science one that T'Pol didn't and similar items. A few were handmade, like the wedding quilt that the Tucker's had brought from Earth and the Vulcan Harp that T'Les had brought. The other Vulcan guests had been informed of this custom and had also brought small items, mostly food as they knew T'Pol would not have access to food from home, serving as she did on a Human starship.

Once all the gifts were opened and the givers thanked, Hoshi stood up and walked over to the wall computer. "I'm sure that SubCommander T'Pol and Commander Tucker would like to get out of the spotlight but I've picked out a special song for them to start off the dancing with. To me this song exemplifies the rocky journey they have had traveling from disdainful allies to loving bondmates." Then she had the computer start the music and began to sing. Trip held out his hand and T'Pol took it as they traveled to the makeshift dance floor.

Tale as old as time

True as it can be

Barely even friends

Then somebody bends

Unexpectedly

Just a little change

Small to say the least

Both a little scared

Neither one prepared

Beauty and the Beast

Ever just the same

Ever a surprise

Ever as before

Ever just as sure

As the sun will rise

Tale as old as time

Tune as old as song

Bittersweet and strange

Finding you can change

Learning you were wrong

Certain as the sun

Rising in the east

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast

The song confused the heck out of the Vulcans but the Humans thought it was both hilarious and accurate. Although for such a pointed song, few could say who had been the Beauty and who had been the Beast in that relationship. They had both taken on either role at one time or another. T'Les looked over at Catherine who was still busy recording. "I do not believe that calling one member of a just wedded couple 'Beast' is a good thing. Is there some significance I have missed?" Captain Sopek and T'Lan looked like they agreed but could not bring themselves to ask.

Catherine laughed and handed the recorder to her husband. "Don't miss anything honey. I want to make sure that the kids can see it all even if they can't be here." Then she turned to T'Les. "Do your people have teaching tales?" she asked.

"Yes, we have many such tales," T'Les said, although she still did not see what that had to do with the song or the relevance to the wedding.

"Beauty and the Beast is an ancient fairy tale that teaches not to judge by a person's appearance." Catherine quickly told the fascinated Vulcans the tale of the merchant's daughter and the enchanted prince. "This song is from a classic telling of the tale and is about when their tentative friendship turns to love, much like what happened to our children. One moment they are barely friends and the next they're bondmates."

The Vulcans listened fascinated not only by the tale but the lessons that it taught as well about hospitality, bravery and honor. These were things that were prized in Vulcan culture. This was an ancient tale from a people the High Command called little more than barbarians? A species that would not be civilized enough to truly enter the galaxy on their own for centuries?

T'Les reviewed the words of the song and admitted that they could indeed be applied to her daughter's unexpected bonding. Even Surak would have agreed that this situation was more than sufficient cause for her daughter to be a little scared. Bonding with an offworlder had long been thought to be a mark of perversion. But T'Pol had a Pudvel-tor katelau tel; the bond had formed on its own making it a bond created by the Other, the one who created the Elements. To call that perverted was to call the Other such and no Vulcan could do so. Change was coming to Vulcan, whether anyone liked it or not.

The dance continued well into the ship's night, long after Trip and T'Pol had left. Malcolm eagerly monopolized Hoshi for the evening while all around them crewmen were starting conversations with the Vulcan guests. Archer sat down at the table that held the wedding party. "I'm so glad that's over."

"This part is you mean," Charles chuckled. "We still have to get through a reception back on Earth and the wedding on Vulcan too. I bet you never thought that you'd be marrying Trip off did you?"

"Oh Lord no!" Archer laughed. "I never thought I'd ever meet anyone who could match him; much less put up with him." He sighed in satisfaction. "And I never thought that I'd be in a position to be the one to perform the ceremony. I always thought that if by some miracle he did find someone who'd say yes to him I'd be his best man."

"You did a fine job Jon," Charles said, "and whoever it was that arranged most of this needs to be complemented as well. Who did you get to do most of this? I know you were too busy and T'Pol really wouldn't have known everything that needed to be done for a Human wedding; although I'm sure she could have pulled off a Vulcan one."

"Ensign Hoshi Sato, the Maid of Honor," Archer said as he pointed her out. "She's our communications officer. She's a savant when it comes to languages. She can learn a new language in a matter of hours. Sometimes she can learn enough to make herself understood in a matter of minutes. She's a critical part of this crew."

"They all are according to Trip," Catherine said.

"May I ask why is it you call your son Trip?" T'Les asked.

"It is the custom in some Human families to name a son after the father. This can continue to outrageous lengths, although that doesn't happen often. My father-in-law, Charlie was the first to be named Charles Tucker. My husband, his son, is the second. My son is the third, and Trip is a shortened form of triple. He says that he doesn't mind his nickname but he won't be naming one of his sons Charles the fourth."

Archer chuckled. "T'Pol says they are and odds are running about 80 in her favor at the moment."

"Are your people betting on children already?" Charles asked amazed.

"A specialist I really can't tell you about since it's classified, genetically engineered them some children. They're already arguing names because T'Pol is insisting they be named before you leave for Earth. They're sending some of them with you and some with Lady T'Les," Archer nodded at T'Pol's mother, "to make sure that if something happens then some of the children will survive. That way if the worst is to happen, you'll just need a Vulcan surrogate to carry them to term."

"And they would know that their parents cared enough to name them before they died," Catherine whispered. "She's right; they should be named before we leave."

"Yes, but Trip's still holding out for anything but Charles the fourth!" Archer said with a laugh.

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Trip and T'Pol Tucker had finally been able to sneak off to their quarters and the argument that had been put on hold due to their time in sickbay was once more going strong. "No, T'Pol." Trip said as he changed.

"Yes, and we need to make a decision. He's the last one to be named." T'Pol hung up her dress and looked at the very odd pillow that was currently resting on her bunk.

"Anything but Charles the Fourth, I don't know and I don't really care," Trip said as he left the bathroom. Picking out 21 names both male and female had worn out his imagination. He saw where she was staring. "That's a body pillow. I'm what we Humans call a snuggler. That means that I hug whoever is in my bed with me while I'm asleep. With the pillow there I'll hug it and not you. I don't want to make you any more uncomfortable than I have to."

T'Pol was touched by his understanding of her reluctance with the situation. "Why do you not wish our son to be named for you?" she asked, wanting to understand his reluctance. She had not directly asked before.

"Because being named anything the fourth makes for a bad nickname. There is no way I'm sentencing our son to be called Quad," Trip said. She looked blankly at him. "Trip is short for Triple."

T'Pol considered this new information. She had not known that some nicknames could be 'bad'. "What are the other options for a nickname?" she asked.

"Charlie is the easiest," Trip said.

"Then his nickname shall be Charlie," T'Pol said firmly.

Trip gave in. "Ok, ok, Charles the Fourth it is." He was far too tired to argue anymore. Besides he didn't want to have to explain that parents really didn't have that much say over a nickname.

"Trip; there is something that I must explain to you." T'Pol said as they lay down on their bunk, one on either side of the long pillow.

"What?" Trip said sleepily. It had been an exhausting day.

"I have not had time to speak with you in private. You must never touch my ears in public again," T'Pol said firmly. She couldn't look at him while she spoke.

"Why not? I know that we really haven't gotten that far yet but I like your ears."

"Because for Vulcans it is an intimate area," T'Pol said, flushing a little green as she did so.

Trip pulled the pillow closer to him and looked over it at her. He saw her blush and realized just what he had done. 'Great going Trip, grope your girl in public!' "Ok sweetheart, I didn't know that. I'll wait until you're more comfortable with me to touch you there and I won't do it in public again," he promised.

"Thank you, good night."

"Night."


	17. Trip's Luck Strikes Again

A/N: This chapter is almost entirely dialog and almost entirely taken directly from the episode 'Shuttlepod One'. As the episode itself was almost entirely dialog there wasn't much other choice for me.

"It's going to be fine T'Pol, nothing's going to go wrong," Trip said as he came out of the shower and headed for the closet. He and Malcolm were scheduled to take a five day trip in Shuttlepod One to test the new targeting scanners. They needed to be at least 20,000 kilometers away from Enterprise during the tests, thus the long trip away from the ship and more importantly right now, his bondmate.

T'Pol glared at his back from her position on the floor where she had been trying to meditate. "I am aware that this mission is one you refer to as a 'milk run'. I am not concerned about your ability to complete the mission."

"Then what has you so upset?" he asked, pulling on his uniform. He caught her glare this time and amended, "I mean what has you so concerned? I do realize that upset is an emotion." One of these days she was going to realize that he just wasn't going to stop referring to things from an emotional perspective.

"I do not," she paused to consider her choice of words and realized that she could not say that she did not have any concerns. "Being parted from you for any length of time is difficult during this time of our bonding. That is why bondmates are not parted on Vulcan during their first year of marriage."

Trip smiled gently. "I'm going to miss you too. I'll be back soon." He brushed his fingers across her lips in a Vulcan kiss before settled down in front of her on the other side of the meditation candle. Focusing on getting their breathing in synch, they began to meditate together before heading off for their duty shifts. They both had their duties and both would fulfill them to the best of their ability, even if they didn't want to.

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SHUTTLEPOD 1

On board Shuttlepod One Malcolm Reed was sitting at the pilot's station while Trip Tucker was examining some damaged circuitry with a laser. "The Captain said they'd be mapping this asteroid field, but I can't see head nor tails of them."

"Maybe it's another asteroid field," Tucker said unconcerned.

"No, this is the one. Two primaries, seventeen planetesimals," Malcolm said.

"Well, they weren't expecting us back for three days. Maybe they finished and went off to do something else."

"Well, with our sensor array down, we won't know when they get back until we see them. Any luck with the comm?" Malcolm asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Dead as a doornail. I don't understand it." Trip complained.

"Well, no doubt you'll have your boys take this pod apart piece by piece once it's back in the launch bay." Malcolm was sure that with the proper tools and support Trip would have it fixed in no time.

"I'd feel a lot more comfortable having everything in working order by the time Enterprise gets back. T'Pol's been as worried as she gets about this mission. The last thing I want is for her to be able to say 'I told you so' when we get back."

"Well, tinker all you like. I've got a copy of Ulysses here. I doubt I'll even be halfway through it by the time the ship gets back." Malcolm picked up his PADD with the novel.

"I'd rather realign every micro-circuit on this shuttle than try to wade through that baby." Trip shuddered theatrically.

"British schools have a core curriculum. It serves to provide a well-rounded education. Sometimes I think you North Americans read nothing but comic books and those ridiculous science fiction novels."

"I'll have you know that Superman was laced with metaphor. Subtext layered on subtext," Trip said with a laugh.

"I'm not sure I want to know what sort of subtext you're referring to Commander!" Malcolm said with a smirk.

"Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm referring to the great battles between good and evil and..."

Malcolm looked out window during Trip's rebuttal and interrupted, "Commander."

"the potential in every person for both," Trip continued.

"Commander, I think you'd better come and take a look at this." Reed once more reverted to the professional naval officer he was. Outside the window a large asteroid could be seen. On its surface was a large crash site.

"Bring us in closer." Trip leaned over Reed's shoulder for a better view.

"Is it a ship?" Reed asked, hoping that it wasn't. He prayed that it wasn't the ship that he knew it probably was.

"If the damned sensors were only working, we could," Trip paused as he saw something. "Bring us around again. There. Slow down." On the surface they could see a large piece of metal with the numbers 01 on it. They both froze for a moment in grief.

READY ROOM

Captain Archer sat at his desk in his ready room and answered the door chime. "Come in. How are the Tesnians doing?" he asked Hoshi as she walked in.

"Dr. Phlox can only keep twelve of them in the Decon chamber at a time," she said, sitting down in front of him.

"What about the other, what it is it, 22?" he asked concerned.

"He's rotating them. They seem to be doing fine on our atmosphere but they need at least 6 hours of boron gas a day. He says we've got enough to get them home," Hoshi assured him.

"Have you learned their language?" Archer asked both teasing and serious.

"Yes sir," she answered primly.

"What do they have to say?"

Hoshi sighed, "They're pretty rattled. Most of them have been on that ship for years. It's a lot to digest, they lost everything."

Archer agreed but, "They're alive. Does the Captain have any idea what happened?"

"No, and he feels terrible about the damage to Enterprise. He has no idea what went wrong. When they approached our docking port they lost control of their sensor array and then a few seconds later their navigations system went out," she gestured hopelessly.

"Thank God their escape pods were working." Archer didn't want to think about what might have happened.

Hoshi agreed, "I saw the wreckage on the asteroid. There wasn't much left."

Archer reached over and activated the comm. "Archer to Mayweather. What's our ETA?"

"We should reach Tesnia in about 20 hrs, sir."

Archer nodded even if Travis couldn't see him. "Good work. That should get us back to our rendezvous co-ordinates well before Trip and Malcolm get there. Let's drop out of warp for a few minutes. I want to inspect the damage to the launch doors."

"Aye, sir."

INSPECTION POD

Archer was piloting the inspection pod while T'Pol was manning the pod's scanners. He peered up at the Enterprise's hull. "Who's in charge of Engineering while Trip's away?"

T'Pol answered him without looking up from her scanners, "Lt. Hess."

"Tell her to get a team working on a new starboard door for launch bay two." Archer shuddered at the sight of the gaping hole and twisted metal where the launch door used to be. "Everything else check out all right?"

"Astrometrics detected what could be micro-singularities in the vicinity of the asteroid field." Archer had noticed that the longer Trip was gone the shorter and more succinct T'Pol's answers were getting.

"Aw crap! Those are nasty buggers. Has Enterprise sustained any damage that could be caused by one?" Archer asked worried.

"No, but our hull plating was polarized."

"Keep an eye out. I don't want to end up like the last ship we rescued after running into one." 'Even if it did have a positive effect in the end running into the other Enterprise like we did,' he thought.

SHUTTLEPOD

Tucker asked, "How about the lifeboats? They could have launched the lifeboats before the crash."

Reed didn't want to give Trip any false hope. "They'd be here. They only travel 300 kph away from their launch site. They'd be right here waiting for us to return." Malcolm knew that they were all dead, killed in the crash.

Trip refused to believe that everyone was dead. His bond with T'Pol would have let him know the moment she died. "Our sensors are out and we don't know when this happened. They could be right around the corner and we'd never know it!"

Reed said softly, "Commander, there are no survivors. We have to figure out what we're going to do."

"T'Pol's not dead! I'd know if she was! We can't just leave. If we can find the black boxes we might be able to figure out where the lifeboats are." Trip wasn't going to give up without a fight.

"With what? We have no radio. Nothing to pick up the beacons and I'm sorry Commander, you're just going to have to accept that we're all that's left." Reed really was sorry. He knew just how much Trip loved his wife.

Trip ignored Reed's insistence on the crew's deaths and asked, "What's the range in our distress beacon?

"It's offline." Reed reminded.

"I'm talking about the portable one, the one in the away kit." Trip explained.

"10 million kilometers, maybe 20, but I highly doubt there'd be a ship anywhere close to that." Reed knew how bleak their chances were.

"The lifeboats have stasis berths. They can wait until someone finds them," Trip said. "We have to make sure that happens. We've only got 10 days worth of breathable air. How far to Echo 3?"

"At impulse? A lot more than 10 days."

"Well, if we could get close enough for it to pick up our distress beacon it'd relay the signal back to Starfleet."

Reed hated to let his friend down but he had to. "I'm afraid the math doesn't work out, Commander. It's going to take weeks, maybe months for our signal to reach Echo 3. By the time Starfleet got a ship out here we'd be; we'd be long dead."

"But at least they'd find us and they'd go looking for the lifeboats."

"Sir," Reed had to make Tucker see reality.

"Which way?" Trip demanded.

"Which way to what?" Reed asked.

"Echo 3. Which way to Echo 3?"

Reed sighed, "I told you, it's too far."

Tucker gritted his teeth. "Do you know which direction it is or don't you?"

"Navigation is down."

"That's not what I asked you." Tucker growled.

"You want me to guess?" Reed asked waving his hands at the stars that could be seen.

"You come from a long line of Navy men and you got a real good memory. Look hard at those stars, find something that looks familiar and tell me which way to go." Tucker said pointing out the window.

"Sir."

"That's an order!" Trip almost shouted.

Reed gave in. "I don't suppose you have a sextant handy."

Tucker smirked, "I left it with my slide rule." He watched as Reed sat down in the pilot's seat. "Well?"

Reed waved a hand at the window. "That blue giant, we may have gone by it. I'm not sure."

"That's good enough for me. Take one more low pass over the wreckage and then set a course." As they swooped down over the 01 sign, Tucker said, "I'll make sure someone finds you, all of you."


	18. Dueling Perspectives

SHUTTLEPOD 1

Malcolm was dictating into his personal log. "Personal Log, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed. November 9, 2151. By the time anyone hears this, by anyone, I suppose I mean anyone Human, Commander Tucker and I will be long dead. It is my intention to recount the events that led to the destruction of the Starship Enterprise and to express my deepest feelings regarding my short but memorable service with Starfleet.

Tucker threw over his shoulder, "Tell them I'd love to add my two cents, but I'm trying to get a little work done."

Malcolm rewound his log. "short but memorable service with Starfleet. In order to test the targeting scanners on Shuttlepod One, Commander Tucker and I had to get at least 20,000 kilometers from Enterprise. During our third trial, we experienced a brief but sizeable jolt, and shortly thereafter realized that our sensor array had gone offline."

Trip interrupted, "This sensor array is more than offline. It's totally fried."

Malcolm decided that there wasn't any point in trying to edit out Trip's ad lib's. The man would just make more. "We had no choice but to head back to the asteroid field where Enterprise was involved in a mapping project. We found the ship destroyed, its debris strewn across a square kilometer of one of the larger asteroids. Had our sensors been working we certainly would have done everything possible to determine the cause of the disaster, but as it was, with only a short-range distress beacon and limited air, we had no alternative but to set a course for Echo Three where someday this vessel and eventually this log, will be found. May God have mercy on our souls."

Tucker sighed impatiently. "Why don't you cut the crap and get back here and help me? I keep telling you, some of them survived. We just have to find a way to make sure that we're all found."

"What would you like me to do?" Reed asked. It wasn't like he had a lot of important duties to perform out here anyway.

"I don't know. You could hold this flashlight, or turn down the heat. Whatever you want. I'm just getting a little tired of listening to all your pessimism."

"If there's something you need me to do I would be more than happy to comply, but I'm afraid pessimism is simply not an accurate description of my log entry. I'm just being realistic, Commander. They're all dead and so are we," Reed said snippily.

"T'Pol's not dead. How many times do I have to tell you that? And we've got nine days. We're bound to find someone out here."

"At warp perhaps, but at impulse?" Reed asked. There was just no way and he knew it. They were both dead men and he wished that Tucker would realize that.

"Then someone can run into us. You ever think of that? Or see us on their sensors. The possibilities are endless," Tucker pointed out.

Reed got up and walked the few short steps over to the other side of the pod. "I'll heat up some rations. What are you in the mood for?"

"Depends, what are you serving?"

Malcolm picked up a few packages and started reading labels, "Veal marsala, chilean sea bass, moo goo gai pan,"

Tucker looked up, "Got any meatloaf?"

"With gravy and mashed potatoes," Malcolm held up the package.

"Perfect."

"And Kentucky Bourbon for desert," Malcolm said holding up the bottle.

Trip shrugged. "Yeah, Jon was planning to give that to somebody, can't remember who. Guess it's ours now."

LATER

Malcolm was writing letters. "Captain Archer claims you told him you weren't even aware that I was serving on Enterprise. I find that difficult to believe, considering I wrote you twice in the weeks prior to our departure. Now, it is possible that you never received those letters. You were, I believe, in the process of moving back to Malaysia at the time. But you must have spoken to Aunt Sherry during that period, and I know she received my letters. I would hate to go to my death thinking that either of you felt I was trying to avoid,"

"Malcolm! You've been at it for hours now. Don't you think it's time to give it a rest?" Tucker growled.

"As I'm sure you must have heard that was my esteemed colleague, Commander Charles Tucker. Mister Tucker doesn't share my belief that it is essential to say what must be said, to leave a record, tie up loose ends. Mister Tucker is laboring under the false hope that we are going to be miraculously rescued before we suffocate," Malcolm said sarcastically.

Trip returned the favor. "Mr. and Mrs. Reed, I realize that you've just begun a period of mourning and that I'll never get an answer to this question, but I got to ask it anyway. Was Malcolm always this cynical?"

Malcolm turned to glare at Trip. "In a few days, when the reality of this situation actually begins to sink in, you might very well decide you want to record some logs of your own. You have my word, I will not interrupt you."

"I just want to get some sleep, Malcolm! Is that so hard to understand?" Trip asked.

"We have less than nine days of oxygen left. It seems a waste to use it up sleeping," Malcolm said seriously.

Trip growled, "If I don't waste some oxygen sleeping, I'm going to start getting real cranky, and you don't want to spend your last nine days cooped up with me when I'm cranky. So turn that thing off and get some rest."

Malcolm thought about saying something about the fact that sleeping without T'Pol always seemed to make Trip cranky but thought better of it. He wasn't in the mood to hear Trip's insistence that his wife was alive one more time.

SHUTTLEPOD - MORNING

"Morning Malcolm, I got the receiver working but the transmitter's a lost cause. Who's Stinky?"

"I beg your pardon?" Malcolm asked as he sat up.

Trip smiled, "You were talking in your sleep. You kept calling for some guy named Stinky."

Malcolm ignored the obviously untrue charge and focused on what Trip had said before. "You repaired the receiver. What is that? Is it a ship?" he asked, referring to the noise the machine was making.

"You know the range is very limited," Trip admitted. "It's probably just white noise; the sound of the galaxy laughing at us." Just then the shuttlepod was hit and shook hard.

"What the hell was that!?" Malcolm said, trying to hold on.

"I don't know but it felt a little like whatever knocked out the sensor array," Trip said, holding on himself.

Reed looked over at his pilot's board, "We're losing atmosphere. Pressure's down eight percent."

"Help me! We've got to find that hole!" Trip said as he searched.

"Without sensors it's not going to be easy to locate," Malcolm pointed out.

"Then use your ears!" Trip said exasperated.

"Pressure's down 22 percent," Reed reported tersely.

"The damned hole is too small!"

"Where is it? What are you doing?" Reed asked as Trip ripped open a ceiling panel.

"It's nitrogen for the coolant tanks. Just give me a few seconds," Trip said as the pod filled with opaque gas. "Now let's find the leak."

"I got it! It's over here!" Reed called out.

Tucker called out, "There's another one down here! Put your finger on it until we can figure out what to do."

Reed thought quickly. "We've got some valve sealant in storage bin three."

Trip swore softly. "Have we got anything a little closer?"

"Do you mind passing your meatloaf?" Reed asked.

"What?" Trip asked.

"I assume you've finished with it," Reed said matter of factly. Trip used his foot to get the tray off the bench and pushed it over to Reed. Reed put his foot in the tray and used the mashed food remains to block first his tiny hole and then the other one.

Tucker chuckled, "And you came close to criticizing my choice of cuisine. Obviously whatever hit us went clear through the pod." He got on the job of making the temporary patches permanent ones.

Reed ran a diagnostic and replied, "I'm afraid it did more than just puncture the cabin, Commander. On it's way out it was kind enough to rupture one of the O2 cylinders."

Tucker sighed and leaned his head against the hull next to the patch. "Great, how much closer to oblivion are we?"

"We've got less than two days of air left," Reed said with finality. He walked over to where Trip had patched the second hole. "The skin of this pod is designed to deflect a meteor five times the size of this hole."

They exchanged worried glances. There was only one thing that they knew of that could do this; microsingularities. "I wonder if that's what took out Enterprise," Trip said softly.

"We'll never know," Reed said just as soft.

"Always the optimist," Trip snorted.

"We have forty hours of air left. What do you expect me to do, sit here and plan my wedding?" Malcolm asked.

"I'm confident that I'll live to see T'Pol give birth to Charles Tucker the Fourth one day."

"So she wore you down did she? Well at least you know he'll be born regardless. You sent him off with your parents. They'll make sure he's born." Malcolm was certain of that, no matter how difficult it would be. The Tucker's just did not give up; as exemplified by the man next to him. "Any suggestions on finding me a bride in the next day and a half?"

Trip smiled. "Well, if you're looking for suggestions, I'd recommend Hoshi if she made it." Malcolm sighed. "Would another half day be worth freezing your butt off?"

"What are you talking about?"

"If we lower the thermostat in here to about minus-five centigrade, we should be able to use that power to enhance the efficiency of the atmosphere recyclers." Tucker shrugged.

Reed sighed, "Our last two and a half days freezing versus our last two days toasty warm. What a delightful choice."

"I'd pick freezing, another half a day is half a day," Trip pointed out.

"Freezing it is then," Malcolm said as he hung up a mirror.

"And just what are you doing?" Trip asked puzzled.

"An officer at his best is always well-groomed," Reed said as he started shaving.

"Nice to see you're developing a more positive attitude," Trip said.

"Actually, I was thinking about what our corpses would look like when they're eventually found. With no air in the pod, we should remain in fairly good condition."

Trip shook his head. "Charming, but you're forgetting one thing Malcolm."

"What's that?"

"If I remember my honors biology course correctly, your hair and nails keep growing for quite a while after your dead. I'm pretty sure that includes your beard," Trip pointed out.

Malcolm turned off the shaver. "Thanks."


	19. Rescue

ENTERPRISE READY ROOM

"Come in," Archer called from behind his desk. Anything had to be better than his paperwork. Paperwork was a bore but was something that every captain had to put up with. At least with an on going mission, he was guaranteed to be interrupted once in a while.

T'Pol came in and laid a PADD down on his desk. "I've analyzed the scans we took of the Tesnian ship. I believe they were hit by a micro singularity."

Archer shook his head, "Well no wonder things went to hell for them."

"Three also hit Enterprise, here, here and here."

Archer suddenly frowned, "Shuttlepod 1"

"Sir?" T'Pol asked, suppressing a sudden jolt of fear for her mate.

"I'm concerned about Trip and Malcolm. The shuttlepod doesn't have the hull plating we do. They could be in for a rough ride when they get back to the asteroid field. Better hail them and agree to a new rendezvous point."

"Yes sir," she said. She was in full agreement that Trip should not be anywhere near such dangerous phenomenon in just a shuttlepod. It was a bad combination.

SHUTTLEPOD 1

As it was now -5C, Malcolm and Trip were bundled up with baseball caps firmly on and their jackets zipped up as far as they would go. Once more static could be heard over the comm receiver and Malcolm turned to Trip. "A ship?" he asked.

"It's a little more modulated than the last one, but it could be just a random gamma-ray burst. You know, Travis and Hoshi couldn't have been more than 24 or 25 years old." Trip mused.

"If the Captain were here with us now I wonder if he'd feel guilty about bringing them on this mission," Malcolm said thoughtfully.

Trip shook his head. "Not for a minute. They died doing what they loved, if they died."

Reed snorted, "I don't remember Hoshi loving much about being in deep space."

Trip disagreed. "She was coming along. She saved our asses on more than one occasion. I plan on letting her family know just how essential she was."

"It sounds to me like you do have some letters to record," Malcolm pointed out.

Trip shook his head, "Nope, I'll wait to tell them in person."

"You know, you're endless optimism is beginning to get just a little bit tiresome," Malcolm snapped.

"Unlike your heartfelt letters of farewell to half the girls in San Francisco?" Trip snarked. "You know if I didn't know better I'd call you a Don Juan!"

"At least I'm capable of accepting our fate. We're going to be dead in about 33 hours. Whether our beards continue to grow or not is of no concern to me. We will be dead! And unless some ship happens across our path, our bearded bodies will be discovered in about three or four years. Is that optimistic enough for you?" Malcolm demanded.

"What is your problem with having a little hope? Even if we do die, at least the others will be found." Trip tried to point out the silver lining.

"What is your problem with facing the truth?" Malcolm wanted to know.

"You're a regular grim reaper, Malcolm. Anyone ever tell you that? Well, if this little trip is a death sentence, then it would seem to me we're entitled to a last meal. What'll it be? I'm afraid our selection is somewhat limited," Trip snarked.

"I'm not hungry," Malcolm said, his frustration pouring out of him and leaving him rather tired. "Is that how you really see me? The eternal pessimist? The grim reaper? I don't want to die, Trip. What makes you think I want to die?"

"Because ever since we saw Enterprise spread across that asteroid, you've done nothing but write your own obituary." Trip pointed out.

Malcolm winced. "You don't understand. I lost nearly everyone I cared about on that ship. Those girls I talked about; Rochelle, Deborah, Catelin. None of them worked out because I could never get very close to them. I never got very close to my family either, for that matter, not that it's any business of yours. But with the crew of the Enterprise, it was different. I was really starting to feel comfortable with most of the crew. The only real friends I had were on that ship and now the only one that's left thinks I'm the bloody angel of death."

"Damn it Malcolm, you're not listening! T'Pol is not dead! We're bondmates remember? We're telepathically bonded to each other. She's up here," Trip tapped the side of his head.

"After the Vulcan priest does his thing," Malcolm said. "I did my homework, or as much homework as I could get out the Vulcans."

"No, right now," Trip paused. "That's the difference between a chosen mate and a betrothal bond. You're right; a betrothal bond isn't strong enough to really make an impact until it is consummated in a mind meld. Chosen mates are different." He tried to find the words to explain something so very alien. "Chosen mates bind themselves, when the time is right. It's instinct to meld. For us, the priest thing is just going to be a formality. Once the bond started to form we were already married. That's the real reason T'Pol got so pissy when I got pregnant."

"The bond's not real strong now. She's just a presence in the back of my mind. But the bond is growing stronger every day. We don't know how strong it will be when it finishes binding us together. At the very least we'll be able to speak to each other telepathically when we're in line of sight. At the most we'll be able to communicate across light years. T'Pol is alive! And if she's alive, then some of the rest of the crew had to make it too!"

Malcolm took a deep breath. It seemed that once more the Vulcan need for privacy had him working on a misassumption. "If T'Pol made it, then something probably went wrong long before the crash," he said, trying to work it out. "They must have abandoned ship and Enterprise crashed later. That would explain why we couldn't see any lifeboats."

Trip nodded and pulled out the bottle of Bourbon, "Here's to the crew of the starship Enterprise, may those who didn't make it ride the wind between the stars forever."

"Here, here," Malcolm said and with that toast they started sharing the bottle.

ENTERPRISE BRIDGE

T'Pol was cold. A cold so deep it was settling into her bones. She paused in her calculations of the micro singularities' positions to check the bridge temperature once more. It had not changed from the last time she had looked. 'Why am I so cold?' she wondered. Even at the lower temperatures that Humans preferred she should not have been experiencing more than a slight numbness in her extremities. But she was so cold her bones were beginning to ache.

"Nasty little buggers," Archer said, leaning over her shoulder. "I really hope Trip and Malcolm didn't run into one of them."

"They have!" T'Pol exclaimed. That was the explanation. It wasn't she that was cold, it was Trip. He was so cold it was a threat to his life. "We have to find them immediately. They are in need of medical care!" She began a detailed scan, following the 'feeling' of cold and Trip.

"What?" Archer asked confused. "How do you know?"

"I am freezing. The temperature on the bridge is not low enough to cause it. When one bondmate is in a life threatening situation, regardless of how weak their bond is, the other will feel it. They may not recognize it but they feel it. Trip is freezing, therefore something is terribly wrong. We have to find them now!" T'Pol didn't stop to give her explanation. She had to find her mate.

SHUTTLEPOD 1

Malcolm asked drunkenly, "Does that sound modulated enough for you?" He pointed at the comm.

"Modulated?" Trip asked.

"The radio; or is it just the galaxy giggling at us again?" Malcolm said before he took another drink.

"It can giggle all it wants, but the galaxy's not getting any of our bourbon!"

This brought a snort/chuckle from both men. Then Malcolm decided that since they were dead anyway, he would ask a question that had been bothering him for a while. "Hey," he nudged Trip who was huddled beside him. "I know you're married to T'Pol and all but, hmmm? I think she's pretty. Do you think she's pretty?"

"T'Pol? Are you serious? She's gorgeous and my wife so hands off!"

"Yes but you were so prim and proper at the wedding I'm beginning to wonder."

Trip didn't want to know what Malcolm was wondering so he interrupted. "Mal, you've had too much to drink."

"Of course I've had too much to drink! That doesn't stop me from wondering."

"Oh God," Trip moaned.

"You ever noticed her bum?" Malcolm asked, trying to look Trip in the face.

"What?" Trip yelped. He could not believe that Malcolm, Mr. Rules and Regs had actually asked him that drunk or not!

"Her bum. She's got an awfully nice bum."

Trip shook his head. There was no getting out of this conversation now. 'Well if you can't beat 'em, join 'em,' he thought. "To SubCommander T'Pol Tucker, the most beautiful woman in the universe and you keep your eyes off her bum. That's mine just as soon as she finally lets me have it."

Malcolm snorted, "All that and you're not even getting any? You poor sap you really do love her! Awfully nice though." He glanced over at the comm as it crackles again. "It's probably nothing, right?"

Trip scrambled for the pilot's seat, "That's definitely not nothing!"

Malcolm drunkenly rambled, "Well then, that means it's something. What is it? Well, is it something or someone, because if it's someone,"

"Shh!"

"Sorry," Malcolm muttered.

"Definitely someone."

Malcolm continued, "We have no way to respond, do we? This is like the plane flying over the desert island in a lost at sea movie."

"Malcolm!" Trip snapped.

"Sorry, happy endings, I must think happy endings."

Trip made an adjustment and suddenly they could hear Hoshi's voice over the comm. "We know you're in trouble and we're trying to find you. Please respond."

"It's Hoshi!" they both cried in delight.

"Commander and Lieutenant, please respond."

"We need to get their attention," Trip said, struggling to figure a way to signal Hoshi and whatever ship she was on.

"Can they see us on their sensors?" Malcolm asked.

"I have no idea what that ship's capabilities are Mal," Trip said. "We need to do something that no one can ignore."

"What if we fired off our weapons?"

"Nah, not big enough," Trip said. He knew what he was going to have to do and he didn't like it. 'Think about T'Pol,' he told himself. 'Do you want her to die because you did?" That of course had been his real motivation for finding any way possible to survive. If he died, so did his wife. "I'm going to have to eject our engine."

"What good will that do?" Malcolm asked.

"If I blow it up it'll make one heck of an explosion." They looked at each other grimly but moved to jettison the impulse drive. Reed attached the micro-detonators that Trip had stashed in the shuttle for some reason. Then Trip said a prayer as he ejected the drive.

"How does it feel to be slower than a snail?" Malcolm asked

"I saw this great cartoon once," Trip said as they huddled together once more. "There were these two snails sitting on the back of a big old turtle and one snail turns to the others and says 'Hold on Fred. Here we go.'" Slowly the two men drifted off into unconsciousness.

ENTERPRISE SICKBAY

T'Pol and Archer hurried to sickbay to see the two recovered officers. "Phlox?" Archer asked seeing him bounce from Trip to Malcolm and back.

"They are both hypothermic, have higher levels of carbon dioxide than I'd like and," Phlox turned around and handed Archer a bottle, "completely intoxicated. I don't know where they got the alcohol or why they were drinking it. It wasn't a good choice considering their position."

"It is if they thought they were dying doctor," Archer said. "They only had a few hours of oxygen left."

"They were drinking before the SubCommander sent us after them," Phlox said.

T'Pol was holding Trip's hand carefully. "He is still very cold," she said.

"I have to be careful warming them up," Phlox said. "They will recover but I do believe a small lecture on the dangers of freezing temperatures and alcohol are in order."

"Phlox, give it a rest. Hess gave me a report on the damage to the shuttlepod. They had no navigation, the comm could only receive and that barely, no distress beacon, as far as she could tell the impulse drive was working but they blew it up to signal us as to their location and they lost most of their oxygen supply. The reason they were freezing was to feed more power into the air scrubbers. Hess says that gave them an extra twelve hours," Archer paused, "which we used ten of to find them." Phlox flinched at the grim count down of damaged systems.

Just then Malcolm groaned. Archer leaned over so that he would be able to see without straining. "We're on Enterprise? But how?"

"Easy Malcolm," Archer said. "You two had a nice little bout with hypothermia."

"The Commander,"

"He's going to be fine," Archer grinned and nodded his head over at the other biobed.

Phlox moved over to Malcolm. "You both have a way to go before I'll release you from sickbay though."

"You're supposed to be dead. We saw Enterprise, what was left. How?"

"I'll tell you about it in the morning, for now you need to sleep and warm up some more," Archer said. He walked over to Trip who was just beginning to wake up.

"SubCommander," Malcolm called.

T'Pol left Trip for a moment, moving only far enough away to get to Malcolm's side. Her attention never left Trip. "Yes."

"The Commander never thought you were dead. He knew you were still alive." Malcolm tried to get her to understand.

T'Pol did not understand why this was supposed to be such a revelation. "Of course, we're bondmates."

"Maybe someday that will make sense to me," Malcolm slurred.

"Good night, Lieutenant," T'Pol said and she walked back to Trip. She could still hear Malcolm.

"Good night, still got a nice bum." he muttered.

T'Pol paused only slightly before returning to Trip's side. She would ask him later what the Lieutenant had meant.

"Told him you weren't dead," Trip said with a smile.

"No but another group nearly was," Archer said. "You know as much as I want all of my officers to get field and command experience I'm not too sure I should send you off the ship again."

"Hey! It's not my fault we ran into a couple of mini black holes!" Trip protested.

"Oh I'm not talking about your away team record Trip. That's bad enough but I just can't take any more of her pouting," Archer laughed as he tilted his head at T'Pol. "We had three of the things hit Enterprise and she didn't say anything more than they hit here and walked off!"

"Vulcans do not pout Captain," T'Pol asserted.

"Ah huh," Archer agreed. Then he turned to Trip. "I just can't take it any more. Just about the only thing she hasn't done is to try and out do Porthos in the puppy eye department."

"Only one way to stop it Captain," Trip pointed out.

"I know, make her stop please?" he whined. The two Human males began laughing at the confused look on T'Pol's face. 'It's nice being able to tease my best friend again,' Archer thought, 'and this time I get to include T'Pol as well.'


	20. That's It!

Hoshi Sato stared at the data PADD in front of her. It was all right there in plain sight and yet no one had ever put the pieces together. They had been so wrapped up in diplomacy, technology and their own agendas that they had never bothered to put all of the information together to make a coherent whole. "That's it!" she cried and jumped up from the table.

T'Pol, Trip and Malcolm looked at each other bewildered. The four of them had been having lunch in the mess hall. Trip and Malcolm had once more been bickering over weapons upgrades and power consumption while Hoshi and T'Pol had been discussing Vulcan history. "What's it?" Trip asked.

"Vulcans and Humans have had a communications problem for a while now and I've been trying to figure out what the basis of it is. I knew that some of it was cultural miscommunication, especially after I got to know you T'Pol," Hoshi nodded at the First Officer. "But it's been really bugging me for the last two months." No one needed to be told what had set Hoshi to wondering. The event of running into the 1701 had started a lot of speculation on a lot of subjects. Not to mention having turned the senior officers lives completely upside down. "I was present for some of the diplomatic talks when I was learning Vulcan. The body language never made sense to me, no matter how I looked at it. I knew that I was missing something. It was like they were having two different conversations rather than talking to each other."

"So what's the reason for the problem?" Malcolm asked, tugging her back into her seat.

"There are a couple of reasons but it boils down to history," Hoshi said. "It starts with The Time of Awakening on Vulcan, which was 2,000 years ago. That was when Surak converted the Vulcan people to logic. Up until then they were worse than a cross between the Klingons and the Andorians. That was during their atomic age. They had space flight with sub-light ships and had several small colonies by then. But they were destroying themselves with both major and minor wars between clans. They hadn't had a single day of peace for thousands of years.

"Now a bonded pair can have up to seven children if they survive long enough. But less than half of the children of the time survived to adulthood to have children of their own and few adults lived to have all seven children. Several times they came close to dropping their population below sustainable levels. It was during the last major war that Surak started to preach logic and pacifism. Now you need to pay attention to the amount of time involved. It took Surak over two centuries and several major; I mean cataclysmic, disasters to convert the majority of the surviving Vulcans. Even then he didn't convert everyone. Several of the surviving clans saw what was going on and left Vulcan never to return."

"You are speaking of the Sundering," T'Pol stated.

"Yes but my point is that it took Vulcan more than a thousand years before they ventured out of their territory again. Every successful race out here has gone through a similar situation unless they had alien help. And even those have taken a very long time before they ventured off their homeworlds."

"And they expect us to follow the same pattern," Malcolm said thoughtfully. "They expect us to have a major catastrophe and then take forever to learn from it once we figure out we have something we need to learn."

"Yes, but as a race we can't!" Hoshi said excitedly. "When you add in the factor that Humans act very similarly to Vulcan toddlers, many of the Vulcans who interact with Humans subconsciously treat us like children. They have never really interacted with Human children and teens. They don't understand our maturation process. They expect us to loose one of the very basic elements of our race. They expect us to 'mature' and loose the innate need to push our boundaries, to learn completely."

"You mean they expect us to become hide bound idiots?" Trip spluttered. Malcolm just looked horrified at the prospect.

"I do not understand the appellation," T'Pol said puzzled.

"Its slang for someone who is stuck in the past, who can not learn and move forward with new information," Hoshi explained. "One of the driving forces of Humans is the need to learn and explore. 'You learn something new everyday' is a very old saying and is considered to be fact for the most part. When a Human stops learning they stop living."

"And a Human learns best through experience," Trip pointed out.

T'Pol absorbed this information. It suddenly made something that had annoyed her for years make sense. "So when Humans continue to insist that all Henry Archer wanted to do was see his engine fly, they are referring to this need to learn?" she asked.

The Humans nodded solemnly. "Your people crushed him Honey," Trip said softly. "He was one of our best people and Vulcans destroyed him." They could see when the young Vulcan realized exactly what that meant. Not only had her people accidentally destroyed a man that they had great respect for but an entire generation of Humans had been prevented from learning in a way that they needed to as a species.

"By the very fact of your existence being common knowledge, many of our people were and still are consumed with a need to learn more about what is out here. There are so many new things to learn and the possibilities are endless," Malcolm said.

"Soval must have this information immediately," T'Pol said as she picked up her dishes and left the mess hall. The Humans were sorry for their friend's distress but the possibility that such a fundamental misunderstanding could be cleared up was wonderful.

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T'Pau was a junior member of the Vulcan High Council, having taken her Clan's seat on the Council some 25 years before. It was rare for one so young to be given a seat on the Council. Most were not given that sort of responsibility until their second century but she had an uncanny knack for politics that had shown itself from the time she was a young child. She had returned to her office after reviewing the information Captain Sopek had delivered to the Council. It was as disturbing as the rumors being circulated by the High Command that her younger sister T'Pol had become a deviant and had actually married a Human crewmember of the ship she was serving on. She was in need of meditation.

Instead of finding a peaceful place to meditate, she found her mother who had been missing for almost two months. "Mother, your unexplained absence has had many concerned," she said as she hurried into the room.

"The High Command did not wish to allow me to attend your sister T'Pol's wedding to her bondmate," T'Les explained. "I was forced to travel in secret."

"You approve of her marriage to a Human?" T'Pau said, shocked. She could find no logical reason for this.

T'Les arched her brow. "I see no way that I can disapprove of her marriage to one she shares a Pudvel-tor katelau tel with," she chided gently. She did not ask how T'Pau came to have knowledge of just who her youngest sister had married. Not only did she sit on the High Council, the Ni'Var had been delayed by no less than four diversions. Each of the diversions had dealt with a genuine emergency but the delay was suspicious to T'Les.

"A Pudvel-tor katelau tel?" T'Pau asked shocked. "I must meditate. I have had several shocks in the last few hours and must integrate the new information."

"Of course daughter," T'Les said calmly. "I too was forced to meditate for many hours when I was given this information. When you have regained your balance, I have a recording of the first ceremony you may view." T'Les got up to leave but paused for a moment to say over her shoulder. "T'Pol and her new husband also plan to have a Vulcan ceremony here on Vulcan as soon as they are given leave." With that she left.

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The Vahklas' engines were shot. Trip looked over them and shook his head in disgust. The Vulcan ship's captain, a male Vulcan named Tavin, had asked for help in repairing his ship's engines and life support. Captain Archer had sent him and a few of his team over to help while Enterprise mapped the Arachnid Nebula. Most of the crew of the Vahklas was over on Enterprise because Trip had shut down most of the life support systems. They were shot too.

"Kov, I don't know how you've managed to keep this old girl running, I really don't." It wasn't just that the systems hadn't been maintained properly, which they hadn't although he could tell that Kov had been doing his best to do so. There was only so much an engineer could do with a trashed engine and no repair facilities. The entire ship had probably been falling apart at the seams when Tavin had bought the ship and taken it out into space. "It's going to take at least three or four days to get everything up and running again the way it should be. My captain says that's not a problem. The Vahklas will just tag along with us as Enterprise maps the nebula."

The two Engineers spent all day working on the ailing ship's engines before finally deciding to stop for a meal. They went back to Enterprise only to find the mess hall mostly empty. Among the other occupants were two Vulcans, T'Pol and another Vulcan Kov identified as Tolaris. The moment Trip saw the two he realized that his intention of introducing T'Pol to the young Vulcan Engineer would have to wait. He could see that she was involved in an intense debate with Tolaris and rather than interrupt he steered Kov to the other side of the mess hall. He had the good sense to know that nothing upset his wife faster than having a good discussion curtailed.

Kov couldn't help but notice. "You don't get along with your first officer?" he asked.

Trip laughed, "Nah, we get along great but I know better than to get between her and one of her targets. She's either ripping apart his argument or committing it to memory." What he didn't say was that from the look on T'Pol's face he thought she would love to rip Tolaris a new one but someone, probably Captain Archer, had told her to play nice. He turned his attention back to Kov and the young man's endless questions about Humans; but not without keeping an eye on his wife and Tolaris. Even without having a lot of experience with Vulcan body language aside from T'Pol's, he knew that Tolaris was far too interested in T'Pol for his comfort.


	21. The Attack Part 1

"I did not see you at dinner tonight. I thought that you might continue your work on the Vahklas," T'Pol said to her husband as she got ready for their neuropressure session.

"I was there but you had your frustrated laymata expression on and I didn't want to get between you and your prey," Trip smirked. "Besides, there's no way I'm going to miss this." He laid out the mat on the floor.

"You think I looked like a frustrated laymata?" T'Pol asked; eyebrow arched.

"Yeah, like you had a nice juicy meal right in front of you but you couldn't get to it because someone had put up an invisible barrier. I'm guessing that the Captain told ya to play nice."

"He believes that perhaps some of the techniques the V'tosh ka'tur use would be able to help me handle your emotions."

"Translation please?" Trip asked.

"Vulcans without logic; they have rejected the teachings of Surak," T'Pol explained.

"So that's why Kov is so curious about Humans," Trip said. "And you don't think that their teachings would work."

"No, not only will their techniques not work, Tolaris wishes me to join him. His arguments were illogical, juvenile, unsupportable, inane and an insult to my intelligence!" T'Pol said. "He is most persistent but I have no wish to be without logic. I require a way to handle your emotions. My control of my own emotions is adequate."

The uneasy feelings that Trip had upon seeing Tolaris solidified. The man was after his wife. He would deal with that later. Right now his wife needed him here, not out gunning for a Vulcan Don Juan. "And Jon wouldn't let you rip his arguments to shreds."

"You are correct. What is worse, I believe that Tolaris believes that I have been persuaded to believe his arguments are valid!" T'Pol had to stop and concentrate on her control. She had no wish to take her frustrations out on her mate.

Trip lit the candles T'Pol was setting out. "You've called me most of those things from time to time," he pointed out. He knew that there was an extreme difference between the two as T'Pol usually enjoyed their discussions but he wanted to hear what she would say.

T'Pol turned to face him. "You are Surak compared to Tolaris," she proclaimed flatly.

Trip burst out laughing at that comparison. The idea of him being anything like the father of Vulcan logic was ludicrous. "Oh honey, it sounds like you've had a worse day than I did."

"The Vahklas' repairs are that extensive?" she asked, concerned.

"Tavin must have bought that thing out of a junkyard. Here let's skip neuropressure tonight. I've got something I want to show you." When T'Pol looked at him like he had grown a second head, Trip persisted. "I want to give you a message. It's similar to neuropressure but I've always reserved it for very bad days."

Intrigued by the idea of Human neuropressure T'Pol gave in without further fuss. She had to admit that Trip was correct, today had been particularly difficult. Trip arranged her on her front and started with her feet. "So Tolaris was persistent?" Trip said. "What does he want you to do?"

T'Pol sighed as Trip rubbed her feet. "He wanted me to stop meditating before sleeping so that I might experience my dreams," she said.

"But we don't meditate before bed. We meditate before going on shift," Trip said puzzled.

"Your dreams are very interesting. I found the one about shore leave on the beach to be quite illuminating," T'Pol said sleepily.

Trip had to admit, "I liked that one too. Been dreaming that one since our little trip to the decon chamber together."

To Trip's astonishment T'Pol said, "Perhaps we can recreate it on our next shore leave. I have been thinking of suggesting Risa to the Captain."

"Sounds good to me darlin'!" Trip said.

By then he had reached T'Pol's thighs and she was a quivering mass of goo. She thought that Trip was very logical to reserve this for extremely stressful days. If he did this every night she would be too relaxed to function the next day.

Trip was pleased that his efforts were appreciated. He had never heard T'Pol make those small sounds before and he found that he liked them. He slid his hands up under her silk top and began working on her back. It was hard to believe that just two months ago Captain Kirk had told him they were bonded. At the time the very idea of being T'Pol's bondmate was shocking, horrifying and a tiny bit of wonderful.

"How can something be shocking, horrifying and wonderful?" T'Pol asked sleepily.

Trip realized that she was picking up his thoughts through the bond and physical contact. "Sometimes Human reactions are like that sweetheart, all hopelessly jumbled. It didn't take me long to sort things out though. That's what I was thinking about, how quickly we've adapted to being bonded. Now it's just wonderful."

"I was quite disturbed as well," she admitted. "But now the fact that you are my mate is quite satisfying."

Trip settled down to making sure that every single muscle T'Pol had was completely free of any tension. As he did so, he slipped into what had become one of his favorite daydreams, making love to T'Pol on a Florida beach. The feeling of being watched slowly crept up on them. Occupied as they were with each other's minds, they didn't notice at first that anything was wrong. Then suddenly the daydream was taken over and Trip was shoved out of the dream.

Where the mind touch of the Vulcan Healer had been cold and impersonal, this was malevolent and possessive. Trip had a flash of another man taking his place in the dream before the pain started. Both Trip and T'Pol arched up screaming in pain. They both reacted instinctively, lashing out together mentally at the intruder.

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In sickbay Dr. Phlox was puttering around with his menagerie when an alarm went off. Quickly checking it he realized it was the passive medical alarm for the officer's quarters; the Tucker's cabin. A second alarm rang out seconds later, calling a second medical emergency in the guest quarters. Phlox hit the comm while grabbing up a med kit. "Phlox to Captain Archer! Medical emergency among our guests and with the Tuckers! Crewman Cutler and I are enroute!" As the two ran out of sickbay Phlox directed Cutler to the guest quarters while he headed for officer country.

Archer and Tavin ran for sickbay, knowing that their people would be brought directly there. When they got there Lieutenant Reed and his people were carrying Tolaris, T'Pol and Trip into sickbay. Strangely Reed and one of his men were carrying the Tucker's side by side, making sure not to physically separate them. They were clinging to each other's hands.

"What's going on?" Archer demanded, springing forward to help Malcolm set T'Pol on a biobed. Surprisingly Phlox directed the Armory crewman to set Trip on the same bed.

"We found them on the floor writhing, screaming and holding hands. The doctor warned us not to separate them," Reed reported for Phlox. "He's speculating some sort of psychic attack. Tavin, contact your people and find out if anyone can 'hear' anything or if anyone else is being affected. It we're lucky someone may have noticed something."

"Do you know what you're asking us to do?" Tavin said astonished.

"One of your people is being attacked as well Tavin!" Archer snapped. He didn't want to take his stress out on the congenial Vulcan but this was an emergency and Tavin was supposed to be a Captain. That meant more than just deciding where to go and giving orders. It meant putting yourself on the front line for your people.

Meanwhile Phlox had run his scanners over both Trip and T'Pol and was now scanning Tolaris. "That is not necessary gentlemen," he said furiously. "Tolaris is the one attacking."

"That's impossible!" Tavin said. "Tolaris has no reason to attack anyone!"

"Check the readings yourself. I may not be a telepath but I have been trained in what to look for. There are only three brain wave patterns present and they belong to Commander Tucker, SubCommander T'Pol and Tolaris." While Tavin checked Phlox's readings, Phlox partially sedated Tolaris and all three patients relaxed. Trip and T'Pol cuddled into each other on their biobed while Tolaris went limp. Phlox checked to make certain that Tolaris would not be able to move or summon more energy for attacking. There was nothing more that he could do. Any more medication would cause further damage in all of his patients. At least the Vulcan could not escape in his condition.

Tavin did not want to believe that one of his people could be responsible. "I still do not see any proof that it was Tolaris who was attacking. It could have just as easily been the SubCommander," he said. But they could tell that he was deeply disturbed by what he had seen and heard so far.

Phlox snorted. "It could not have been her," he stated plainly. "Mr. and Mrs. Tucker were otherwise occupied at the time of the attack."

Malcolm looked down at the sleeping couple. 'I had thought that he'd said he wasn't getting any. He certainly was quick to chide me about being a gentleman every time I teased him about it. He was quick to point out that they had only known that they were bondmates for two months and married for one. That was damned quick for intimacy for a Vulcan. Then again, maybe Phlox was talking about something else.' They had found the couple lying on the floor on a mat, clutching each other's hands. Malcolm couldn't get their screams out of his mind. He had never thought he'd ever hear a Vulcan screaming in pain. He never wanted to again.

"Mr. and Mrs. Tucker?" Tavin repeated surprised.

"They have a chosen mate bond," Archer explained. "They've had a Human wedding ceremony and they'll have a Vulcan one the next time we get shore leave on Vulcan."

"They were more shocked than the rest of us to find out they were bondmates," Malcolm said as he moved aside for Phlox.

"How are they?" Archer asked.

"Very lucky," Phlox said. "If the attack had gone any longer at that intensity they could have sustained irreversible brain damage. As it is, they both will be experiencing symptoms similar to concussions. They will recover but it will take a few weeks. That is if Tolaris stops in his attack."

Archer nodded, "And how do we get Tolaris to stop attacking?" Personally he would love to shove the Vulcan out an airlock but as Captain he couldn't take that route. He had to take care of the situation in such a way that the authorities of both races could agree that Tolaris had been properly dealt with.

"We don't," Phlox said. "Either he stops on his own or the Tuckers must defeat his attack. Not even a Vulcan Mind Healer could separate them at this point."

Archer didn't like it but he realized that he could do nothing about a psychic attack. "Lieutenant, place a round the clock guard on Tolaris. Phlox; do whatever you can and let me know when this is over. I'll need to have Trip and T'Pol tell me what happened for the record. Tavin, I'm sorry but I'm placing Tolaris under arrest. Lieutenant Hess will head up the repairs for your ship." With that he left and Reed followed a moment later. Tavin stared about in bewilderment. He couldn't believe that after this Archer was still willing to help them. No Vulcan would have done the same. They would have condemned the entire group for the actions of a single man.


	22. The Attack Part 2

A/N: Please take this warning seriously. I hate rapists with an extreme passion. Tolaris dies in this chapter. It is an extremely gruesome and bloody death even though it takes place fully within the mental landscape of the mental connection he established.

Trip knew that it wasn't his body that was in pain. Suddenly the pain eased to manageable proportions. When the pain receded Trip saw that the area around him was flickering between T'Pol's meditation white space (a place that he had only seen twice) and the red sands of Vulcan. In front of him was T'Pol and Tolaris and he realized that they were battling over the environment. Whoever could dictate the landscape would dictate the tide of the battle. And he knew that it would be a battle. T'Pol would not submit to this jackass for anything.

But neither was gaining the upper hand. T'Pol was distracted by the sensations of a world she hadn't seen in years. But Tolaris couldn't overcome T'Pol's years of discipline. But there was one place where he and T'Pol could turn the tables on Tolaris.

Tolaris may have distracted T'Pol with images of Vulcan but she was as comfortable meditating in the Florida Keys as she was in her white space. Tolaris on the other hand, was familiar with both the white space and the Vulcan desert. But the Atlantic Ocean should freak the hell out of him.

Trip reached out and took T'Pol's hand. A quick look and T'Pol threw her mental strength behind Trip. Together they easily overwhelmed Tolaris and took control of the mental landscape. The area stabilized into one of Trip's favorite places, his father's fishing boat at sea. "Ya know, ya'll shouldn'ta gone an done that," Trip drawled. As with every time they came here Trip was wearing one of his Hawaiian shirts and tan cargo shorts while T'Pol was dressed in a blue and red bikini.

"You cannot prevail against me Human!" Tolaris snarled. "And when you are dead she will be mine!"

"You are not worthy to clean my mate's maintenance shafts!" T'Pol snapped, recalling the worst and dirtiest job in the Enterprise's Engineering department.

Trip just laughed, "Boy, you really picked the wrong people to try this with. My wife ain't no shrinking violet you can sweep off her feet. And me, well you really picked the wrong way to fight me." Trip knew that as a Human he had been using his imagination to build fantasy worlds for far more years than either Vulcan.

The only warning Tolaris had was a low rumble. Then the boat was engulfed in a hurricane. Wave after wave crashed over the sides, drenching the shocked Vulcan but missing the couple standing hand in hand on the deck. Trip easily rode the rocking of the boat, having gotten his sea legs before he could walk. T'Pol drew on his skill through their bond. Tolaris tried to reject the imagery but as it was actually one of Trip's memories it was too real for him to overcome. He had spent so long seeking out sensation that he could no longer reject it.

That was when Trip really struck. No one was going to hurt his wife if he could help it. Drawing upon his well developed memory of old horror movies, Trip brought monsters on board. He sent drowned sailors crawling up the sides and a Kraken's tentacles as well. The sailors grabbed Tolaris' ankles with bloated pale blue hands and the Kraken grabbed him by the throat. They dragged him over the side and the gale subsided, turning the waters crystal clear once more. Trip leaned on the railing and looked down at Tolaris hundreds of fathoms below the boat. T'Pol stood behind him with a hand on his shoulder.

Tolaris was struggling. The dead sailors were dragging him down and the seaweed that was a part of them was attaching itself to him as well. He couldn't break free. The Kraken was trying to pull off his head but wasn't quite managing more than a tug of war with the sailors. While the two groups were fighting over their prize, sea creatures were converging on the struggling Vulcan.

T'Pol could feel Tolaris' fear but made no move to stop her mate. She was interested in finding out what form of execution Trip had chosen. Simply frightening the man to death was not enough as far as she was concerned. Tolaris had tried to break her marriage bond and had to pay for that with his life.

A moray eel was the first to strike, tearing off a piece of Tolaris' arm. A manta ray sliced a piece of meat off of his leg with its stinger. A sand shark went for his fingers. And so it went, as more and more of Tolaris' blood flooded the water, more and more sea creatures, both real and imaginary came to take a bite of the Vulcan. The carnage reflected Trip's cold fury over Tolaris' actions. Mental or not, the man had just tried to rape his wife and he could not allow that to pass unanswered.

Tolaris fought back; pulling drowned sailors apart, ripping the Kraken's tentacles off, and breaking the bodies of the carnivorous sea life. Trip brought in Sirens with mouths filled with shark's teeth and Kelpies in water horse form. The Sirens feasted on his entrails that the Kelpies ripped out of him with their clawed hooves. Tolaris managed to fight them off and then struggled back onto the deck of the boat. When he arrived, Trip straightened up and caused iron chains to fall all over him. The chains then fastened themselves to the deck.

Tolaris was struggling to reform his mental body but T'Pol did not give him time to focus his attention. She had something she wanted to say to him. "I am very angry at you Tolaris. Your feeble attempts at a logical argument were difficult enough to ignore but Captain Archer instructed me to 'play nice with the other children'."

"That's Human for the diplomatic art of not getting into a fight with someone you want to strangle," Trip said as he called up a flood of small crabs. They swarmed over Tolaris, taking small chunks of his flesh in their claws and ripping them off of his body.

"You have caused my mate and I a great deal of pain," T'Pol continued from where she stood beside Trip. She had moved her hand from his shoulder to his hand when he had stood up straight. "You tried to sever our marriage bond. You know the price you must pay for your actions." She could see when he realized that the damage Trip was inflicting wasn't going to stop. They intended to kill him, slowly and painfully.

Tolaris began ripping crabs off of himself and flinging them at the couple leaning against the rail in an attempt to strike back. He was shocked to see that instead of making the deadly creatures disappear, they both stood relaxed while the crabs landed and then scurried down their bodies. The crabs headed directly for him as soon as they reached the deck. This was not how any mental duel he had ever fought before worked!

By now Tolaris was a bloody wreck. His clothes were gone and the only places that weren't bleeding were those covered in chains. He truly started to panic when the crabs began to enter his body. No part of his body, external or internal was safe from the crabs. He tried to pull away and sever his connection to T'Pol's mind but she refused to allow it. He disappeared under a swarm of crabs.

They could both sense when Tolaris died. His malevolence gave one last shove at them before disappearing forever. Trip dismissed the crabs and the chains, and then turned to T'Pol. "Are you alright?" he asked, quickly looking her over. He had been so intent on their enemy that he had not had time to check.

"I will recover with time, as will you," she replied serenely. "I find your method of execution most intriguing. What caused you to select it?"

Trip snorted and pulled her onto his lap as he sat down on a deck chair. "Well, the monsters came from old horror movies but the rest came from stuff I've seen out here." He gestured to the surrounding islands. "There's nothing like seeing a feeding frenzy to give you ideas. Besides, I swore to my sister that's what I'd do to any rapist I got my hands on."

T'Pol looked carefully but she could see no sign of distress on Trip's face. "You are not upset that I refused to allow Tolaris to escape death?" she asked.

"Nope, any man who tries to force a woman into intimacy of any kind deserves exactly what Tolaris got. Rapists of all sorts make me extremely angry T'Pol," Trip explained. "When someone tries to hurt someone I love it only makes things worse."

T'Pol nodded. His anger was normal, coming from both the attack on their bond and from his own moral stance. "Why did you promise this to your sister?" she asked snuggling into his arms.

"An older friend of ours was raped when Lizzy and I were kids. We were old enough to understand what had happened but we were too young to do anything about it. So we did the only thing we could do. We talked about it a lot and what we would do if we ever got our hands on the guy. As for doing it to Tolaris, well I figured he'd never even seen an ocean before and it would help keep him off balance."

"You are undoubtedly correct about Tolaris' experience with oceans. It was very helpful. We should rest now. We shall have many things to explain once we awaken." T'Pol pointed out.

"You're right," Trip agreed and they drifted off; the feeling of their bond washing over them like a healing balm.

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In sickbay Phlox was monitoring all three patients as well as keeping an eye on the small group of Vulcans gathered in an out of the way corner. Concerned because of the damaged that one of these unvulcan like Vulcans had already done to members of his crew, he called Hoshi to 'remind her' about a non-existent check up.

When Hoshi arrived in sickbay she had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. The fact that he greeted her in Denobulan simply clinched it. "Hello Hoshi. I hate to impose but they have been down here conversing for the last hour. I'm starting to get a bit worried for my patients." Phlox's smile never wavered as he set Hoshi down on a stool and ran a scanner over her.

Personally she agreed with Phlox, this should be looked into. With two of the senior officers suffering from a psychic attack from a member of that crew, it was a good idea to find out what they were talking about. What she heard surprised her. They were quoting Surak! She could have sworn that T'Pol had said that this group had rejected Surak's teachings.

(Tavin's group speaking in Vulcan)

"I don't think that the Humans will allow us to help with any treatment. OTHER, why did Tolaris have to strike these two people in his madness?" A young Vulcan woman said bitterly. "Even if a ship of Vulcans would have blamed us all, at least the victims would have been properly cared for!"

"'The spear in the other's heart is your own'," Tavin quoted. "The true tragedy isn't that they aren't on a Vulcan ship where they can be cared for, but that they were attacked at all. That's why we're out here in the first place. So that no one who is unaware of the dangers is placed at risk. We must find a way to help them once they destroy what is left of Tolaris. We must also find a way to ensure that we do not descend into madness as well."

"'Within us all is the capacity for barbarity'," Kov agreed. "Has anyone had mental contact with Tolaris in the last year? I have not." Heads shook all over the group as they searched their memories.

"You believe that increased mental contact within our group will prove beneficial?" another Vulcan man asked.

"At the very least if we had know that Tolaris was experiencing difficulties we would have tried to help," Tavin pointed out. "And we certainly would not have allowed him to interact with anyone without strict precautions. We all know that on our path the madness that engulfed our ancestors is possible."

Hoshi softly translated for Phlox as the Vulcans continued to discuss ways to help the injured couple as well as ways to prevent their own descent into madness. She believed that they were sincere.

Phlox agreed. There had been no attempt to disguise the anguish on Tavin's face when he had accepted what Tolaris was doing. He walked over to the group. "What is the correct treatment for an assault such as this?" he asked.

"As they are bondmates, physical contact with each other is paramount," Tavin said in English eager to help. "Isolation from other minds is also helpful. It can increase the speed of healing by quite a bit. They will be extremely sensitive for at least a week. I do not know about Humans but for Vulcans repeated deep contact with a bondmate in mental isolation is the best treatment."

"What about Tolaris?" Phlox asked. What Tavin had said agreed with what he already knew.

"He is dead," Tavin said flatly. "And no one will mourn him, not even among us. He could have asked for help in controlling himself at anytime and did not do so. If we do not ask for help when we need it we will fail. We all know this." Tavin closed his eyes in pain. "Trying to break a mating bond is madness. It will only damage and possibly kill all of those involved. A chosen mate bond is far stronger. The only outcome possible is the death of the attacker."

Just then the alarms on Tolaris' biobed began announcing his death. Phlox waved off Crewman Cutler and silenced the alarms. Although he was a physician, and thus sworn to aid whenever possible; he would not attempt to revive Tolaris. He turned to check on his other patients. To his relief their brainwaves showed that they were settling into a deep sleep. "I need to inform the Captain."


	23. The Battle

A/N: Ok people, from here on in things are going to get mixed up. Some episodes are going to be skipped, as in they never happened in this universe and others are going to be really different. All of this is due of course to finding out about the bond so early and the ever expanding repercussions of that discovery.

"So they need isolation, mental isolation?" Archer asked Phlox, looking over at the pair sleeping on the biobed.

"Yes Captain. That is what everyone agrees on, from the texts the Vulcan healers provided me and Tavin's crew. The real problem is providing such isolation," Phlox said. "We cannot just drop them off on an isolated planet and take off leaving them alone there. They still must be monitored for signs of physical distress. The best thing we can do is go to a planet where the entire crew can take shore leave. Then either we can find an isolated place on the planet for the two of them to go to and I can stay in communications contact with them or they can stay on the ship while everyone else takes leave on the planet."

"Risa, you must take them to Risa," Tavin said eagerly. "My family owns a small island there. It is completely isolated. They use it for meditation and certain medical emergencies." Tavin wasn't sure if Phlox knew what sort of medical emergencies he was talking about but it was best to talk circumspectly with Archer there. "It is my fault that Tolaris was exposed to your crew. I brought him here. Please allow me to provide the best place for their healing."

"Risa is a famous pleasure planet Captain. It is THE vacation spot in this quadrant of the galaxy. It's perfect," Phlox said eagerly. "The crew is in need of leave and the government does its best to provide something for everyone."

"I wish I could but Admiral Forrest just sent us orders to go and pick up a Vulcan ambassador. We're supposed to transport her to Vulcan as soon as possible." Archer really didn't want to deal with that right now but orders were orders.

"The longer it takes to isolate them, the longer it will take them to heal," Phlox warned.

Archer nodded. Just as he was about to speak a groan came from the biobed where Trip and T'Pol lay. "Oh man, now I know what you meant by us healing," Trip moaned.

"It will be extremely painful for some time," T'Pol agreed tightly. She had her head buried in his neck and was clinging to him tightly. Trip had one arm wrapped around her and one hand clutching at his head.

Phlox was at their side instantly, giving them a shot of medicine. "This will lessen the pain but it won't block it completely. I'm sorry that I can't block the pain completely but I'm not a telepath and I need to be able to monitor your bond. That means you need to be aware of whether or not you're still in pain."

"Ok doc," Trip said with a sickly grin. "But I gotta tell ya, it was worth it." They both sat up, T'Pol sitting between Trip's legs and leaning back against his chest. Trip had his arms around her and was leaning his head on T'Pol's shoulder.

At that Archer stepped in. "Trip, we know something happened, some kind of psychic attack but we don't know the details. I'm afraid you're going to have to give a statement. Tolaris is dead."

"Couldn'ta happened to a nicer guy," Trip said which brought a smile to his friend's face and a look of consternation to the three aliens in the room. T'Pol wasn't sure what to think of Trip's response but from what she was feeling through their bond she assumed it was merely another example of his strange sense of humor.

"Yeah," Archer said, letting Trip know that he was aware of what sort of person Tolaris was. He was also letting his officer know that for the record he couldn't say anything until after the reports had been made.

"We were working on our bond in our quarters when Tolaris tried to break it," Trip said flatly. "He wanted T'Pol for himself and was willing to kill me to get her. Captain, the mental assault that he attempted was essentially rape. I don't know how long it's going to take for us to heal from the damage he did. And we already knew he was dead. I'm the one who killed him."

"We killed him husband," T'Pol was determined that he was not going to shoulder that alone.

"I'm the one who did the killing," Trip said flatly. "I was the one directing the attack. You've never even seen half of the stuff I threw at him. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I couldn't let him hurt you!"

"As good as it is to hear you two bicker again," Archer interrupted. "I'm afraid I still need the details."

Trip shrugged. "It was a mental battle Captain. He tried to take over and make us fight on his terms but he couldn't fight both of us at the same time. Two heads really were better than one in this case. I took us to the Keys and well, I attacked him with sea creatures. I killed him with a swarm of crabs."

T'Pol wasn't about to let Trip take all of the blame for Tolaris' death. "It was I who refused to allow Tolaris to leave the link Captain. What he tried to do is a death sentence on my world."

"I understand that T'Pol and as far as the Earth government is concerned this is a case of self defense," Archer turned to Trip. "Are you saying you did the beetle scene from the mummy? The one where they sealed the bad guy in the mummy case filled with flesh eating beetles?" He shuddered. He had always hated that scene. Just the thought was enough to send his skin crawling.

Trip nodded. He knew how much that scene turned his friend's stomach but he'd do it again in a heart beat if Tolaris was still alive. Archer shuddered again but got down to business. "Alright, now that we've gotten that out of the way, we've got a slightly bigger problem. Phlox says that the two of you need to be isolated to heal properly and the Enterprise has been given orders to pick up Ambassador V'Lar and bring her back to Vulcan."

Trip could feel a shot of joy and determination shoot through T'Pol. "We will heal regardless of whether or not we are isolated Captain. It is simply faster for the healing to occur if those who have suffered the assault are mentally isolated. As you will need us on duty, we will cope until a more suitable arrangement can be made," T'Pol insisted.

"Don't worry about us Captain," Trip agreed. "It won't be the first time I've had to work feeling like the fourth day of a three day leave."

"To insure our top possible performance of our duties Captain, we should remain together," T'Pol said.

"I don't want to have to order you to work when you're both injured," Archer said. "If I don't have to I won't. We're just not going to be able to give you and the rest of the crew shore leave. So you'll be off duty and stay where ever Phlox decides is best until we can get to Risa."

"Two things wrong with that Captain," Trip said firmly. "First off, all I'm going to say is milk run. Second, this is the first time Vulcan has ever asked us for anything. T'Pol and I are going to need to be on duty."

"You also need to be well by the time we reach Vulcan," Archer pointed out. "Or have you forgotten that the two of you are supposed to get married the next time we're there?"

"We have not forgotten Captain," T'Pol said. "It does not change the facts. You will need me on duty as much as possible at the very least for this mission. There is also the chance that Trip will be needed in Engineering"

Archer sighed, he had known for years that Trip was as stubborn as they came and he had learned that T'Pol wasn't much better. That was usually because he could hardly ever figure out a logical argument that was better than hers. "Alright, since you're both going to be stubborn about this, Trip run Engineering through Hess until Phlox says otherwise. T'Pol you are both on light duty. I don't want either of you to push yourselves or each other trying to get stuff done. Pass as much of your duties as you can to your seconds. They both need more experience running a department anyway so this will give them the chance. I wasn't going to say anything but Admiral Gardner let slip the fact that they are both in the running to head up the Science and Engineering departments on Columbia."

"Well in that case," Trip looked down at T'Pol and she looked up at him. Archer could tell that they were communicating but he had no way to tell what. "Don't worry Captain, we'll make sure they're ready for it by the time Columbia needs them."

"I'll leave in the good doctor's care then," Archer said and gestured Tavin to follow him. As they left Archer could be heard to ask, "Now exactly where on Risa is this island?"

"I'm sorry but I am going to need to examine you separately," Phlox said to his two patients. "I realize that it is going to increase your discomfort but I need to check the physical damage. I can't send you off to your quarters until I'm sure that the damage hasn't been too extensive."

Wanting to get the exam over quickly, T'Pol slid down off the biobed. The separation made them both flinch but Phlox hurried through the exams and didn't force them to go any farther from each other than they had too. "There is bruising but no bleeding," Phlox announced. "You may resume physical contact and return to your quarters. I will have Chef have your meals delivered to your quarters. Unless you are on duty, I want you in your quarters and away from the rest of the crew as much as possible. You will need to be examined three times a day. Either one of you can do the scans and send them to me or I can do them here in sickbay, which ever is more comfortable for you."

"Thanks doc, Thank you doctor," they both said and walked hand in hand back to their quarters. Once there T'Pol dragged Trip straight to their bunk and threw the body pillow on the floor. Trip was amused but grateful that she was getting rid of it. He wanted to hold her until it was time for them to be back on duty. They crawled into bed and resumed snuggling. The alarm would go off soon enough. Now was time for them to rest and heal.


	24. Reactions and a bit of Author Sneakiness

Chapter 24

Once more Trip met T'Pol in her white space. "Ok Darlin'. Are you going to tell me what has you so excited about meeting this V'Lar lady?" Trip asked as he leaned against nothing. He was dressed in sweatpants and his blue tank. T'Pol was on the 'ground' in front of him, wearing her silk pj's.

"V'Lar was my sister's T'Pau's mentor. Many of the people of my clan become either scientists or diplomats. It was very obvious from the time she was small which life path T'Pau would take. V'Lar was often around our home when I was a small child. She was, kind to me when I could not control my emotions. As small children it is a very difficult thing to learn but it is necessary that we learn before we mature," T'Pol explained.

"Ah, so you admire her. But why did you end up with Soval as your mentor? I mean, you're a scientist not a diplomat like he is," Trip asked. He went over and sat down behind her, pulling her into his arms. Even here, he couldn't seem to get enough of snuggling with her.

T'Pol avoided looking at him. "Soval is more patient than most with emotional outbursts. I was a slow learner."

"Aw hell," Trip huffed, "you do realize that you just torpedoed any remaining resentment I had with Ambassador Grumpy? First Hoshi figured out why your people acted like we're a bunch of kids and now you tell me that he helped you out with being a proper Vulcan."

"He is not grumpy!" T'Pol said indignantly.

"Honey, do you remember when I said that there were bad nicknames? Well, Soval collected quite a few. He got them because of his disposition, not that he was emotional. And he is grumpy, mind you he has more than enough reason to be grumpy dealing with the people that he does," Trip pointed out.

"Are you saying that the Humans Soval interacts with are the cause of his grumpiness?" T'Pol asked.

"Diplomats and bureaucrats are the worst sort of people to have to do anything with. They both have a terrible tendency to follow the 'it's my way or the highway' philosophy of life," Trip said sourly. "It's enough to make anyone with any sense grumpy."

"Are you so sure that Soval has sense? I seem to remember that you dislike him intensely," T'Pol said.

"I did, until I started to realize just what Hoshi was saying, that your people didn't mean to do the things that they did. Soval was merely the focus point of a lot of Human's resentment, especially Star Fleet's because he's the ambassador. That meant that it was his job to tell us no."

T'Pol frowned as another thought occurred to her. "I am aware that Captain Archer has said that the Earth government will consider our actions as self defense but what of Star Fleet?"

"As far as Star Fleet is concerned, the matter is closed. We were injured by an alien who we killed in self defense. But I'll bet you anything they're going to be worried about the Vulcan High Command's stand on it." Trip didn't have to wonder about that one. He had been involved in more than a few 'incidents' at one time or another to figure out how this was going to work.

T'Pol peered up at him quizzically. "Why do you think that the High Command will have anything to say? The facts speak for themselves. Tolaris attacked our bond, therefore he died." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

Trip shrugged, "If you say so. Now, where are we," he stopped as he heard a buzzing sound. As the buzzing sound echoed in their ears, they awoke. Not only was their alarm going off, the door buzzer was as well. "That's got to be breakfast," Trip said through the pain of the headache that he had just realized was the source of the pounding that he heard. T'Pol reached over and picked up a hypospray and gave it to Trip. She remained in physical contact with him which was all that allowed either one of them to move. Once the medicine had kicked in, they got up and started their day.

It wasn't easy doing things attached to another person. 'The only thing that's good about it, other than the fact that I can feel our bond so much easier, is that we aren't chained together and can switch where we're connected when we need to,' Trip decided. During breakfast he finished asking the question that he had started earlier. "Where are we going to put the ambassador up? I mean, the guest quarters we have are kind of small. I got the feeling that might be a bit of an insult."

"You are correct that V'Lar is a high status ambassador," T'Pol said. "I think it would probably be best if we give her your old quarters. They are larger than the guest quarters and no one is occupying them at the moment." She finished her breakfast as she told him what would have to be changed to accommodate the ambassador.

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Captain Archer waited while his Armory Officer read the recorded account of what had happened in the mind link that had killed Tolaris. "My God," Malcolm whispered. "I had no idea the Commander was capable of such cruelty. Not that I blame him for an instant, sir," he said as he belatedly realized that he was talking about not only a superior officer but to one as well, even if they were both his best friends.

Archer waved Malcolm's comment away. "I know what you mean. I knew that Trip had made a vow that he would do that to any rapist he managed to get his hands on but I had no idea that he'd actually do it more than twenty years later."

"Sir?" Malcolm asked surprised. "Why would the Commander do such a thing?"

Archer shrugged. "When we were kids an older friend of ours was raped and she never recovered. She committed suicide a couple of years later. Trip has never really been able to get over it. You're well aware that he considers himself a gentleman," Archer continued when Malcolm nodded, "well, part of that is defending the ladies around him. Sometimes I think that gets him into half of the trouble that got him his trouble magnet reputation. He may not show it but sometimes he really does have a white knight complex."

"At least where the ladies are concerned," Malcolm agreed. "He really cared for her then?"

"Worshiped the ground she walked on," Archer agreed. "And I don't blame him, we all did."

"Are we sure that T'Pol didn't influence the outcome? Not that I blame them at all," Malcolm said. "I'd have killed the bastard too, if I could."

"She freely admits that she refused to let Tolaris leave the link. In fact she tried to take as much of the blame as possible. But I don't think this is a situation that we can blame on her. If anything I think Trip's emotions were probably overwhelming her. Once this report gets back to Vulcan we're probably going to get those bastards at the High Command coming down on all of us for excessive violence," Archer growled. "On the other hand, you're not going to believe this one. Soval sent a letter along with our orders from Admiral Forrest. It seems that something T'Pol said to him has knocked him off of his high horse."

"Well, Hoshi did explain to you what she figured out didn't she?" Malcolm asked. "I know that T'Pol went to send Soval a letter about it."

"Yeah, but I'm still not sure I believe it. But the thing is, Soval believes it. First he actually apologized to me for his people's treatment of my father. Then he told me that he was sending one of his younger attaches to a Human school to learn more about how we mature as a species. Get this, he's sending someone named Sarak to kindergarten!"

"KINDERGARTEN!" Malcolm spluttered. The thought of a young Vulcan dealing with five year old Humans was enough to get him snickering.

"Ahuh," Archer said, trying to hold his own snickers in. "Soval wants him to write some kind of book or paper or something on the way Humans mature in order to help them figure out what mature members of our species act like."

Malcolm snorted. "Don't count on that working," he warned.

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EARTH - Miss Angela Barstow's Kindergarten

Miss Angela was nervous. While she had certainly heard about Vulcans before she had never thought she would be having one in her classroom. And if she had entertained the thought, she never would have pictured a young man around her own age. But for some reason the embassy had asked and her principal had agreed. Thus here he was, dressed in Vulcan robes and watching her kids run into the room like they were an alien species he had never seen before. 'Well, that just might be true,' she thought to herself as she patiently herded her charges into the morning circle.

As for Sarak, he wasn't sure that the small Humans WEREN"T a completely different species than the one he encountered on a daily basis. The Humans he was used to didn't shout, they didn't laugh and run from someone who was trying to tell them something, and they didn't have nearly so much energy! He watched as the teacher finally settled her students onto a rug at the front of the classroom. He watched the morning ritual with complete astonishment. Why were they singing such a completely illogical song? Yes, some Human songs were very illogical but these? These made no sense whatsoever!

The teacher introduced him to the children. Then to his complete astonishment the children started telling him the most strange and varied things. Why would he wish to know the names of Human reproductive organs and which gender had which ones? Why did they want to tell him that baby Humans did not have control over their bodily functions? Or that canines ate their own feces? He was even more astonished by the fact that the teacher, who he was now certain had the patience of Surak himself, was gently turning the strange conversation to what the children were learning in her class.

After a short time at this, the children were sent off to their tables and school supplies were handed out. "Don't worry, it's perfectly natural for children this age to talk about socially awkward, or taboo subjects. They are full of curiosity and a need to tell people about what they've just learned," Miss Angela told him. That was only partially reassuring to Sarak. From just the few minutes that he had already spent in this classroom, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to explain how these creatures turned into the Humans his people were used to dealing with.

Miss Angela sat him down at one of the tables and a small girl smiled up at him. "Hi! I's Manda!"

"Hello Manda," he greeted her. "I am Sarak."


	25. What did you do Scotty?

Over the last three days the crew of the Starship Enterprise had become used to seeing SubCommander T'Pol and Commander Tucker walking around hand in hand. With the gossip grapevine being what it was, several messages had been left in their mailboxes; mostly get well wishes. Trip had been the one to return thank you notes. T'Pol had been busy teaching the senior officers the proper protocols for dealing with the Vulcan ambassador. Fortunately Trip was able to let her know when she was going too far in her efforts to make certain that everything was prepared.

What they didn't expect was just how eager the Mazarites were to get rid of V'Lar. While the three of them were waiting for V'Lar's shuttle to dock, Archer standing to one side and Trip and T'Pol hand in hand as usual, they were exchanging glances wondering just what was going on. Vulcans, or at least Vulcans in good standing within their society and V'Lar would be that as they had been asked to pick her up, didn't commit the sort of crimes she was accused of.

T'Pol was mentally reeling from the accusation. Darlin' we don't know the circumstances and it isn't polite to ask. For all we know she accidentally walked in the wrong place and they're calling it abusing her position because she's not being punished the way they want. It doesn't have to be that she did something wrong on purpose.

We don't know that for certain! T'Pol shot back at her husband.

T'Pol, this is just a reaction from the scum bucket that hurt us. Trip soothed. You can't help but feel wary and upset at meeting another Vulcan accused of wrongdoing right now. I'm not too thrilled with it either. But you know V'Lar. And Vulcan is calling her back home. They wouldn't want her if she was doing something like robbing banks or assaulting people or if she really was abusing her position.

T'Pol mentally sighed. I thought I was supposed to be the logical one.

Trip smirked. Nah, you still are. It's just that I have more experience with emotional reactions. I know why I don't want to be here and it has everything to do with the jerk and nothing to do with V'Lar. From what you've shown me she's a pretty neat lady. It's just easier for me to control my knee jerk reaction because I've had them before. This is your first one so you're having a harder time dealing, that's all.

"Is this going to happen a lot?" Archer asked them. They had been silently watching each other for a while now. He had come to realize over the last three days that when they did that they were communicating mentally. "I thought that the two of you weren't supposed to be able to talk to each other like that for months yet, maybe even a year or more."

The two officers looked up at their captain startled. "That would normally be the case Captain," T'Pol said addressing the second question. "However, normally we would not have been aware of our bond for sometime yet. Between the fact that we are aware and have been working on increasing our awareness of each other and the assault, we have," she paused to try and translate the concept.

"We been diving head first into this Jon," Trip jumped in. "By the time we get to Vulcan we just might be all the way bonded."

"I see, you've been taking the crash course instead of the scenic route," Archer smirked.

"Yeah, I kinda wish we'd of had time for the scenic route but," Trip shrugged. They all knew the consequences of the scenic route. "Besides, this way I get her sooner rather than later." The two Human males chuckled together while T'Pol raised her eyebrow as though to tell them they were being childish. But Trip could feel her agreement through their bond. She too was pleased to have her claim known sooner rather than later. Who knew what sort of trouble her mate could attract as a single male?

The shuttle landed and the Vulcan Ambassador was practically thrown off in their haste to leave. V'Lar greeted Archer politely but couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Trip and T'Pol. Although it made them nervous they were both doing their best not to show it. Needless to say, T'Pol was doing a better job of it than Trip was. Archer was both a little amused and a little concerned over the silent by play between V'Lar and T'Pol. V'Lar looked very pointedly at the very Human hand holding before raising her eyes to meet T'Pol's. T'Pol raised her chin slightly in defiance, daring her to say anything. For some reason V'Lar let it pass, although Archer was sure that if he hadn't been studying T'Pol's body language for so long, he would have completely missed the entire thing.

Later that evening at dinner, Archer was doing his best to run interference between the two Vulcans by making small talk but wasn't having much luck. V'Lar still wouldn't stop watching T'Pol and Trip. Archer couldn't really blame her. He knew just how out of character both of them were acting. Not only did Trip have his left hand on the back of T'Pol's neck so that she could use both hands to eat but she was practically in his lap they were sitting so closely together. Archer was glad that they hadn't had dinner with him before this. The medical restrictions they were under had already made for some interesting contortions on the bridge. He really didn't want to wonder what else that restriction had affected. He was having a hard enough time keeping his mind out of the gutter. "Commander Tucker, are you aware that such physical contact is not usually welcomed by a Vulcan?" V'Lar finally asked.

"We're chosen mates ma'am and our bond was attacked recently. The doctor ordered us to remain in physical contact even when we're on duty to speed the healing process," Trip answered politely.

"The doctor also has us on light duty," T'Pol also answered. "To limit the time we are most exposed to other's minds."

"Child, you have always been unusual. There have been unsubstantiated reports spreading throughout the diplomatic core for some time now about yourself and your situation here on Enterprise. The facts of your bonding did not show up anywhere." If the older Vulcan's expression showed anything, Archer would have to say it was annoyance that a critical factor had been left out.

And she could call them unsubstantiated reports all she wished. Archer knew a term for rumors when he heard one. "It was a surprise to all of us," he said. "But a Vulcan Mind Healer confirmed the bond was that of chosen mates. As for the telepath who attacked them, he's already been dealt with."

"Of course," V'Lar said to Archer. Then she turned to Trip and T'Pol. "I do not wish to hinder your healing. Captain, would it be possible for you to escort me to my quarters?"

"Of course Ambassador," Archer replied. He was thankful that the ambassador wasn't demanding that T'Pol escort her, something that T'Pol had said she was entitled to do. He didn't think that he was ever going to get used to Vulcan customs. Why on Earth would an older Vulcan female need a female escort while T'Pol hadn't needed one at all? Such puzzles were more Hoshi's bailiwick than his, but it didn't stop him from wondering.

It turned out that not all the Mazarites were so willing to let the ambassador just leave. After a short battle with a Mazarite ship, Archer went to confront V'Lar. V'Lar admitted to Archer that the reason she had been on their planet had been to collect information on corrupt government officials. The leaders of the government and a majority of the civilians had wanted to know who was involved so that the corruption could be rooted out as quickly as possible. Without her testimony, the corrupt officials would go free. The corruption charges against her had been false, meant to prevent the very sort of action that Archer's ship had been involved in.

"I apologize Captain. They were not supposed to pursue me. I can only suppose that the ruse has been discovered," V'Lar said.

"It is hardly your fault Ambassador," Archer said mollified. "I can understand these sorts of security precautions. But I needed to know about the situation. I have almost a hundred souls on this ship whose lives I am responsible for. Being prepared for a possible attack under these conditions saves lives." He went over to the wall intercom. "Archer to Tucker," he said.

"Tucker here sir," Trip called from the bridge.

"Trip, you and T'Pol head down to Engineering. There's a good chance our latest friends will be back."

"Aye sir!" Trip said and motioned to Reed. "Malcolm you're in charge til the Captain gets back." He and T'Pol didn't wait for acknowledgement.

"Now Ambassador," Archer looked sternly at V'Lar. "What are the Mazarite ships capable of?"

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Down in Engineering Trip was very loudly cursing the three new Mazzrite ships in every language he knew, and a few he didn't, including Vulcan. Those idiots were going to blow up his engine!

"Archer to Engineering."

T'Pol reached over to punch the button while Trip dragged her all over the Engine Room. "PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE READY TO SLOW DOWN!" Trip yelled in the direction of the comm.

"Sorry Trip, but we need a little more speed."

"I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH MORE I CAN GIVE YOU!" Trip yelled again. He really didn't want to hear what he knew was coming.

"It's called a Warp Five engine."

"ON PAPER!" Trip squawked.

"We don't have a choice Trip."

"AYE SIR!" Trip snarled. A quick glance between the bondmates resulted in them separating and monitoring separate systems on opposite sides of the room. Inspite of the pain of separation they neither flinched nor hesitated in their actions. "Don't take your eyes off that antimatter stream!" Trip told a crewman.

"Four point nine seven!" T'Pol called out.

"Port injectors are hot!" Trip called, waving smoke out of his face.

"Warp Five!" T'Pol called out.

The engineering crew didn't seem to notice what T'Pol was saying but there was a distinct feeling of giddiness running through out the room. They should have blown something by now. The Warp Five engine might have been able to make it to Warp Five, but no one had ever thought that it could run at that speed for any length of time. Something should have blown or shaken apart seconds after reaching that speed. They weren't shaking nearly as much as they should have though.

"Trip we're pulling away!" Archer called. "How much longer can you hold her?"

"MAYBE TEN MINUTES," he yelled. Then he muttered to himself, "Just what did you do to my engine Scotty?" He knew that something had been changed. It couldn't have just been the change in crystals that had stabilized the Enterprise this much at high warp.

"That's all we'll need," Archer said. "They're already about to blow their engines. They can't hold on more than a couple of minutes if that."

"UNDERSTOOD!" Trip yelled. "Well you heard the man people! Ten minutes and we'll have these jerks eating our dust!" Trip called. The news thrilled the engineers even more. This time it wouldn't be the Armory or the Helmsmen who saved the ship. It would be them, guiding the fastest ship in the fleet as she ran her heart out.

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An hour later V'Lar and Archer walked into the Engine Room looking for Trip and T'Pol. They were laying on top of the engine itself, going over every millimeter of every circuit and crystal. "Trip, T'Pol! Good job guys!" Archer called up to them beaming.

"Just tell me I can get my hands on that Scotsman!" Trip snarled.

T'Pol inched her head over the side of the engine. When she saw Archer looking up at her astonished she explained. "Mr. Scott made a few minor modifications sir." She saw by the wince on his face that Archer understood. It did not matter that Scotty's modifications had helped Enterprise sustain high warp for eleven minutes and sixteen seconds. What mattered was that Trip had been unaware of the modifications. She turned her attention to the Ambassador. In Vulcan she explained, "My mate is highly protective of his engine. Another engineer made modifications without discussing it with him. He is highly disturbed by the man's rudeness."

"Sorry Trip, I don't know how you could talk to him. But think about this, he may have not known what he was doing," Archer pointed out. "If the changes are that minor," he trailed off.

Trip grumbled but made no real comment. "I have tried to explain that Captain," T'Pol said. "He merely informs me that it does not matter. Nor does it matter that the modifications probably saved our lives. Mr. Scott should have made him aware that he had made the modifications. I believe that Mr. Scott was unaware that these were modifications. He seemed to be an exceptional engineer, almost as good as Trip."

"Of course he knew!" Trip snarled.

"Ah, I see," Archer said, knowing that meant that his two officers were in the middle of yet another one of their frequent discussions. "We'll leave you to it then." He reached out and making sure not to actually touch skin, snagged the Ambassador's sleeve. "The last thing you ever want to do is get between them when they're like that. It may seem like they're blowing up at each other but they're really having fun," he tried to explain as they walked out of Engineering.


	26. What's Going On?

A/N: dialogue surrounded by indicate that the language is Vulcan.

Chapter 26

Vulcan was a planet of deserts, lethal alien animals and the usually logical people who were as a species named after their planet. Captain Archer knew without a doubt that the planet itself was the least dangerous thing down there on its surface and it wasn't the animals that had him worried. Ambassador V'Lar had been handed over to the Vulcan High Command with little fanfare aside from a few guards to accompany her to the planet's surface. Now he just had to get Trip through his other wedding ceremony without his best friend the trouble magnet causing an interplanetary incident. "Hoshi, how's Trip doing with his Vulcan lessons?" Archer asked quietly. He was standing behind her watching her station on the bridge.

"Well sir, he knows the words to the ceremony." Hoshi peeked over her shoulder and Archer could see that she was smiling timidly.

"Hoshi?" Archer asked. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what the trouble was but he was the Captain.

"I'm sorry sir. I just can't get rid of his accent. We've been working on it, all three of us but that southern accent of his is terribly hard to get rid of." Hoshi said wincing at the memory.

"I didn't even think about that," Archer said rubbing his eyes. "Wait a minute, all three?"

"T'Pol's been trying to help as well sir. But the only thing she's managed to do is some kind of stop gap measure where she gives him her fluency for a short time. It only works when they're in physical contact. Apparently bondmates can lend each other their skills but I'm not really sure how it works or for how long they're able to do it without stopping."

Archer sighed, "Can you at least tell me that he can be understood? The last thing any of us need is for him to accidentally cause an incident because he said something wrong."

Hoshi shrugged. "I can't tell if a native speaker could understand him or not sir. It's one of the downsides of my linguistic abilities. I, sir the Vulcan High Command has opened a channel." All business Hoshi opened the channel and put the image up on the viewscreen. Archer quickly returned to his command chair.

"This is T'Penna of the Vulcan High Command," the screen showed a young looking Vulcan woman. "Enterprise NX-01 you are here by ordered out of the Vulcan Home System and all of her territories. If you do not comply immediately you will be fired upon. You will be given no further warning." The young woman hesitated for an instant and then continued. "I believe that you will not comply without further information. Members of your species have committed great crimes against ours. No Human is welcomed on Vulcan at this time. Leave immediately, I do not wish your lives on my katra." She ended her transmission.

Archer turned to Hoshi. "Katra?" he asked.

"Soul sir," she said.

"Two Vulcan ships approaching sir!" Malcolm called. "Their weapons are hot!"

"Travis, get us out of here," Archer said. "The last thing we need to do is provoke these people any further. I wonder what the hell happened."

In the rush to get away and not set off a battle with the Vulcans who had been their allies for so long, no one listened to Hoshi until it was too late. T'Pol, Trip and Dr. Phlox had been left behind on the planet's surface.

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Dr. Phlox was deep in discussion with several colleagues over a late lunch. He had delivered the Tuckers to SubCommander T'Pol's family and from there they had been taken to the monastery where they would be examined by Mind Healers before their wedding. Now he was at the cafeteria of the Medical Wing of the Vulcan Science Institute, doing what doctors all over the galaxy did best; exchange information in order to learn. Most doctors in general he had found were insatiable when it came to learning everything they could, the good ones at least. Working lunches and other such informal meetings had generated more innovations in modern medicine than any other type of information exchange. They were also the best place to learn the latest gossip, no matter where in the galaxy you were, especially when the doctors were all participants of the medical exchange program.

Vulcan has been buzzing with rumors for months now, mostly about your patients, Dr. Ahjess Pren, a Trill burbled. I've heard everything from 'the Vulcan observer on your ship married a Human to get out of her arraigned marriage' to 'she's gone crazy from living among Humans for so long'.

I heard that the Humans have finally had enough of the Vulcans and started killing them on sight, Dr. Chell, a Bolian chuckled.

Oh please, Phlox laughed. That can't be right. For one thing Enterprise was ordered here to deliver a Vulcan ambassador alive and well from her previous post. Not that I don't think a few Humans of my acquaintance haven't had thoughts in that direction a few times but it always passes. The Humans that I've had the most contact with tend to have a 'think about it and decide not to do it' attitude when it comes to unnecessary violence. Necessary violence on the other hand, they're quite good at.

I never believed that one. And while I don't really care if she wanted to marry her betrothed or not, Dr. Pren admitted, I am concerned about her mental health. We just don't know that much about what happens when a telepath spends that much time among non telepaths.

Ah yes, the bonding, Dr. Phlox smiled brightly. Let me see, it was about three, no almost four months ago now. We ran into a little problem with another ship that was more advanced than ours, in almost every respect. Or rather, they ran into us. We had five casualties, no fatalities thank goodness. Their CMO was quite helpful with them.

Their first officer was a powerful telepath and he was the one who realized that SubCommander T'Pol had bonded with Commander Tucker. No one, least of all the couple in question, realized that they were in the process of bonding. It really is an amazing phenomenon. Even though neither of them initiated a bond consciously, the first time SubCommander T'Pol came into contact with Commander Tucker's mind, a chosen mate bond began to form between them.

Chosen mate bond? What's that? both doctors leaned in towards Phlox eager to hear the details.

Well you see, Phlox began. He quickly finished the explanation. You can come to the wedding with me if you like. I'm told that I can bring two guests of my own.

When is it? Dr. Pren asked, going over her schedule in her mind. There was no way she'd miss this chance if she could go.

Three days from now, Phlox said. It's being held at Mount Seleya.

That's the big ceremony?! Dr. Chell asked excitedly. There have been rumors going on about that for the last two months! All anyone really knows is that the preparations are being done at the T'Karath Sanctuary and it's supposed to be really big. All of the Clan Matriarchs have been gathering at the Sanctuary to take part. It's going to be huge!

But I thought it was supposed to be a uniting of the Clans ceremony? Something about Clan alliances? Dr. Pren asked.

Well I supposed they could see it in that fashion, after all this is the first time that a spontaneous bond has formed between a Vulcan and an alien. And I imagine that whenever this sort of thing has happened in the past it has been the basis of Clan alliances before. I see no reason that they shouldn't continue in the same fashion now. Phlox mused. Agreeing, the three doctors continued their lunch.

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Trip was doing his best not to fidget by trying to figure out just how the water systems worked here in the Sanctuary. He had always known that Vulcan was a desert planet and that water conservation was a priority. But there were a few things that didn't make sense. T'Pol rose from her position beside him and left the small courtyard. They were supposed to be waiting for one of the Healers to come and get them. She quickly returned with a data PADD. "The schematics are on here," she said quietly.

"Thanks," he said sheepishly. He really didn't like sitting around on his hands and liked to keep busy if he could. And productively busy was even better for him; busy work sucked. Something about the water system bugged him. He couldn't place it just yet but now that he had the schematics he was sure he could figure it out. He quickly lost himself in the plans.

A Vulcan priestess sat down next to T'Pol. May I enquire as to the reason you have given your mate the maintenance instruction manual for the watering systems? she asked curiously. The question of their bond had already been settled, although the implications were still being discussed. T'Pol knew that those would be raging for months, if not years.

My mate finds inactivity without purpose to be difficult. As he is an Engineer he has been trying to visually study the mechanics of the water system to learn how they work. It is difficult to do so without the schematics. Humans as a species are driven to learn new things. I did not wish for him to try to dismantle the water systems to try and learn how they work, T'Pol said calmly. Trip would not be doing here what he had done at P'Jem. The memory of his pacing and fiddling with artifacts was bad enough. She was determined that he was not going to repeat it.

"I wouldn't do that and you know it. Might drive myself nuts trying to figure it out though," Trip said absentmindedly. He pulled out a stylus and began modifying the diagrams.

"According to your mother you are as bad as your father when it comes to new mechanical systems. I am also well aware that you find it difficult to keep your hands to yourself when you are bored," T'Pol said. Trip could feel her amusement and flashed her a grin. He sent back a feeling of chagrined agreement through their bond.

What is he doing? Curiosity was the one emotion allowed to Vulcans and while it too was controlled, most gave into it often.

He is redesigning the system to function more efficiently, T'Pol said.

That cannot be done. the Priestess said. The system is as efficient as possible.

You have never encountered Humans before, T'Pol said. It is difficult to describe as they are so illogical but they are exceedingly capable once they have the proper information. I have no doubt that my mate will be able to improve the systems. She did not doubt it. Trip was an extremely capable Engineer. She was also pleased that in a moment of idleness he was doing something that would show his worth to those who doubted him. She was even more pleased that he had no clue that he was doing so. He was simply being himself and that was the best thing of all.


	27. Disturbing Answers

Chapter 27

T'Les was pleased with the solution that T'Pau had come up with. The situation was far more dire than she had ever imagined. Administrator V'Las, the head of the Vulcan High Command, was falsifying reports. Or rather, he was limiting the facts so that the reports slanted in a particular direction, particularly in regards towards certain alien species. The raw information that had been collected at P'Jem had merely solidified an already on going investigation. The pattern that had been revealed was clear. The man was trying to start a war with Andoria and make certain that Vulcan would have to fight that war alone. The only questions were why and who else was involved?

The entire situation made little sense to her but she trusted that T'Pau knew what she was doing. This was politics and that was where her oldest daughter's greatest talents lay. HER job in this matter was clear. And it was a job that she was very pleased to have. She was to ensure that her youngest daughter was married in as public a display as possible. Logically there was only one option, the full kal'i'farr.

The full rites had not been held for centuries. The last time was when a daughter of one Clan Matriarch had formed a chosen bond with the son of another Clan Matriarch. And that was how she had decided to ensure that few realized just what was going to happen. It had to be kept a secret until the wedding itself took place. But a full meeting of the Clan Matriarchs to announce new Clan alliances, that was something that happened every generation or so and it was just about time for another one.

"Just please tell me that the words haven't changed." T'Les could hear her daughter's mate pleading.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, walking into the room and over to T'Pol and Trip. They were sitting on a bench in the stark room that they had been given for the time that they would be waiting. She noticed that Trip was gently banging the back of his head against the wall. She also noticed that her daughter was doing nothing to stop him. Just as she was wondering why T'Pol did not stop this self injuring behavior Trip stopped.

"The words have not changed Trip, at least not the words that you have memorized," T'Pol said gently.

"Thank God, I don't think I could have taken that. I have a hard enough time with those. There's no way I'd get it right if the script changed on me. I'd scramble things worse than usual," Trip sighed. "I just hope that everyone can understand me."

T'Pol knew that he was referring to his accent. They just couldn't get rid of it. "I can give you the words," she offered one more time.

"No darlin' I gotta do this on my own," Trip smiled at her. "Don't try to logic it out. It isn't logical. But it is something I gotta do. I need to show them that I'm willing to do something that is next to impossible just for you." T'Les did not understand why he considered saying his vows next to impossible but she did approve of his motives. Trip saw that she didn't understand and said, "Ma'am I'm an Engineer, not a linguist. I've memorized what I'm supposed to say and I can say it after a fashion. But I simply can't say the words properly no matter how hard I try. My accent keeps getting in the way."

T'Les understood. Humans weren't the only ones with regional accents. Vulcans had them as well. "That is irrelevant. The fact that you are doing your best to honor our traditions is what matters. And in doing so you are proving yourself to be pudor-tor, one who is worthy of honor and respect."

Trip blushed bright red, "Thank you ma'am."

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"What happened?" Archer demanded to know. He was speaking to Admiral Forrest, the one man who was closest to the Vulcans on Earth. If anyone knew just what it was that had set off the Vulcans it should be him.

"Someone killed almost every Vulcan in the embassy here in San Francisco." Archer could see the bleakness on Forrest's face. "And they did it with some sort of virus. The only survivors are either hanging on to life by a thread or weren't there when the virus was released. Thank God the building was totally sealed. They did it so that they could make the inside climate more like Vulcan."

"Is the virus contained?" Archer wanted to know first. Then he could ask the other questions that crowded his mind.

"The building has been sterilized of any and all viruses and what virus remains is in the hands of Star Fleet Medical. There is a full investigation going on but we're having trouble. There are so many people who go through there on a daily basis that it makes it almost impossible to find out when the virus was planted much less who set it off.," Forrest said.

"Did Soval make it?" Archer asked. He knew that the ambassador was somehow connected to T'Pol, although he wasn't sure of the exact connection.

"Yes, he was with me here at Star Fleet Command when the virus was released." He didn't say it but Archer could see the relief on Forrest's face. He had finally figured out that the two crusty old men were friends. "But until we figure out who did this and why the Vulcan High Command is breaking off all relations with us. Hell, they may just end up shooting us all back to the Stone Age in retaliation!"

"I doubt they'll do that sir but we had best get to work on figuring out this out before anyone else dies. I doubt whoever did this is just going to go away," Archer said respectfully. Personally he wasn't sure they wouldn't. No terrorist in Human history just gave up after just one attack.

The Vulcan government had always been a thorn in his side, he admitted. But while he had always thought of them as one of the biggest bullies on the block, he had never wanted them dead. And they were changing. He had gotten an apology from Soval; probably the first that dried up old prune had given anyone. He had also given him T'Pol; a fine first officer and friend, not to mention a wonderful wife for his best friend, and what about Sarek? Wasn't he T'Pol's nephew or something? Archer tried to recall if he was the same person Soval had sent to the Human kindergarten to study how Humans matured. He dimly remembered that the kid was doing his first stretch in diplomatic service and wasn't even considered an adult yet.

"There was a young man from T'Pol's family working at the embassy sir, I think his name is Sarek. I think he was studying how Humans matured, do you know if he's alright?" Archer and Forrest both knew that T'Pol was likely to already know the information but the Enterprise crew had taken T'Pol into their family months ago. Her family was their family.

"I know who you mean. That kid is as lucky as Soval. The school where he helps out as a teacher's aid was in the middle of a field trip when the virus was released. I personally never would have thought that escorting a bunch of elementary school kids to a farm was lucky until now." Archer remembered his own school field trips and nodded. He and Malcolm would have been laughing their heads off at the idea of a Vulcan chaperoning a school field trip before. Now he could only be thankful that the kid was there instead of in the middle of what had to be a massacre.

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Little Amanda Grayson watched as her friend Sarek packed up his things that he had in his desk. It was just like the teacher's desk only it didn't have as much fun stuff on it. "But why do you have to go Sarek?" she asked mournfully. "I don't want you to go. I like you! You can stay with my mommy and daddy. They won't make you leave!"

"I must go. Many of my people have died and we are being recalled to our home planet until the investigation is over." He paused. "I too do not wish to go. Your people are fascinating and I am learning much about you. But the High Command must ensure that all of our people are protected as much as possible." He hoped that the explanation would suffice. He had come to learn that young Humans, especially when they were this young seldom listened to logic if they did not wish to.

Amanda pouted. That was not what she wanted to hear. "But you're safe here! Mr. Thomas and Miss Angela and Mr. Johnson and Mr. Ellington and Mrs. March all take good care of us! They won't let those meanies hurt you! You don't have to go!"

Sarek sighed; he did not want to have to explain this. For some unknown reason Amanda and the other children he was studying could get him to do just about anything when they made that expression. At first it had totally bewildered him but he had soon learned that it meant that they were extremely unhappy. They had an air of innocence that he did not wish to disrupt. And this would cause a large disruption. Indeed he feared that the disruption would be large enough to cause them to cry. He did not wish to see the children crying because of him.

Then he remembered something that he had seen earlier. He knelt down on the floor so that he was closer to the small child's height. He had learned that this is what one did when a serious matter was to be discussed. "Amanda, just as there are things that you do not wish to do that you must, so there are things that I must do that I do not wish to do. The adults in our lives make the rules and we must obey them."

Amanda's eyes grew wide. "You're not a grownup?" she whispered. He solemnly shook his head. "How come you aren't in school?"

"I am Vulcan, Amanda and my people do not become 'grownups' as you say for much longer than yours do. I am finished with my schooling and now I am learning the beginnings of the job that I will make my life's work. That is what I am doing here at your school. But I must still do as I am told. Just as when you are told to go to school and to take a nap and when you are not permitted to eat candy." Sarek hoped that this time she would understand.

Amanda sighed. She did not like to take naps and she loved candy. She hated it when she was told no too. "I understand but I'm going to miss you!" she said as she threw her arms around him.

Sarek was startled but rallied quickly and patted her on the back as he had seen Miss Angela do with the other children. "I will miss you as well." She let him go and he stood to gather his things. She wasn't the only one who expressed sadness at his leaving. The entire class stood on the front lawn to watch him leave. But it was one little Human girl that he would miss the most. She had accepted him before any of the others and some were still wary of him. He hoped that he would be allowed to return soon.


	28. Clan Alliances

A/N: Conversations in " are in English, in [ are in Vulcan and in / are telepathy through the bond.

Chapter 28

In the private room that had been set aside for Trip and T'Pol, her immediate family was gathered. Her mother, sisters and sister's in law were seated on cushions in a circle and their mates stood behind them. T'Les sat on the cushion farthest from the door and was the only one without a man behind her. T'Les was a fortunate woman. She had survived the death of her husband and bondmate and most of her children had survived to adulthood. One of her daughters had not survived the kahs-wan. One of her sons had not survived an encounter with Andorians during his service in the Vulcan High Command. The other five were gathered here for T'Pol's wedding.

T'Pau sat on her right and her face was more controlled than any Vulcan Trip had ever seen before. He knew by now that the more controlled a Vulcan's expression, the stronger the feeling behind it. She had just told them of the events that had occurred on Earth. And the fact that she had proof that V'Las was behind it. [What of your son Sarek? T'Les asked.

[He was not at the embassy when the virus was released, T'Pau answered. [But his betrothed mate was. She has died from the virus. She had survived the initial attack but succumbed later.

Trip realized who she was talking about at the same time that T'Pol did. He didn't know why it hadn't occurred to him that Sarek, father of Spock in the next reality over, would not have a Vulcan betrothal in this one. /Darlin' do you think he's going to marry a Human girl in this reality too?/ he asked T'Pol.

/I do not see why not. It is more likely to happen now that his betrothed is dead./ she answered. T'Les and the others noticed the look that the two were sharing. [T'Pol, you and your mate have some knowledge of this event? she asked.

[Not of the event itself Mother,T'Pol said. As first officer it was her place to explain and even more so as she was female and this was her culture. She had explained earlier to Trip that here, as a male, he was to remain silent, only speaking to her through their bond. She would say anything that needed to be said for both of them. [Within the family is silence, she requested. Everyone nodded their agreement before she continued.

[Four months ago the Enterprise was involved in an interdimensional rift. It tore open the boundaries between this reality and the next one over in the branches of probabilities. Enterprise encountered a ship from that universe. Spock, son of Sarek, was the First Officer of that ship. It was he and his bondmate that informed my mate and I of our bond. The Sarek of that universe was not bonded to the same woman that my nephew was bonded to. As Sarek would not bring shame to our family, I thought that Spock's parentage was merely a matter of the differences between his reality and ours. T'Pol carefully explained.

Heads nodded around the circle. It was a logical conclusion to come to. [Who was this Sarek bonded to? T'Pau asked.

[Spock's mother was Human, T'Pol admitted. [In order to care for him the Healer of that ship had to know how he was created. He genetically engineered enough zygotes that my mate and I will not have to use a donor for the entirety of my fertile years.

/Damn right! You're not having anyone's kids but mine!/ Trip said firmly.

/I wish no other man's child./ T'Pol returned. [Dr. Phlox is even now sharing the information on how the genetic engineering necessary is possible with the Healers and Doctors working at the Science Institute. With this knowledge other interspecies couples will eventually be able to conceive children.

[Are you aware of the identity of Spock's mother?T'Pau questioned. Trip could practically see the matchmaking plans hatch in her eyes. He was grateful that no one knew just who she was. Few Humans still participated in arraigned marriages and most considered the practice to be barbaric. It would not do to have T'Pau trying to track the poor girl down. Heck, they didn't even know if she had been born yet!

T'Pol easily picked up the thoughts flashing through Trip's mind. [We do not. However, it would not matter if we did. Humans do not arrange marriages as we do. It must be her choice to accept Sarek as her mate when she is old enough to make that choice. And it must be his choice to court her in the Human fashion. He will not experience the chosen mate bond as my mate and I did.

T'Pau and her mate both nodded. [Then he shall be allowed his choice. Whether the mate he chooses be Human or Vulcan she will be welcomed in my home.

/What about Ambassador Grumpy?/ Trip asked.

[Did Soval survive? T'Pol asked, as she sent her mate a mental tap. She still did not approve of his use of Soval's 'nickname' although she was aware that Trip meant no disrespect.

[He too was not at the embassy when the virus was released. T'Pau answered. She could understand her sister's concern. Soval was not only her mentor; he was also deeply involved in the Human's Star Fleet. [V'Las has recalled all of the survivors and had demanded the remains of those who have died. He is blaming his actions on Human terrorists. All will be returning to Vulcan on the Enterprise at my request. It is unfortunate that the Enterprise will not be here for your wedding.

[Because of this, we have made other arrangements for the wedding.T'Les announced. [Dr. Phlox as you have said is still at the Science Institute. I have informed him that he is required to participate in the wedding as one of your mate's attendants as he is the only other male here who serves on Enterprise. He was quite pleased at the honor although he was startled to learn that the Enterprise had left. There is currently only one other member of Star Fleet on Vulcan. His name is Major Hayes. He was on leave and exploring the Fire Plains when V'Les expelled all Humans from Vulcan. He was brought here to ensure his safety. He will be your mate's other attendant. This will be our Clan's alliance for this generation. T'Les' voice was firm. As Clan Mother her word was final on Clan matters.

For his part Trip was in a state of shock. First was the shock that Enterprise had left without them. He knew that Jon wouldn't have left them voluntarily, especially without telling them. The second shock was that it was T'Les who had made the announcement. He had learned about the Clans of Vulcan in his studies and was aware that only a Clan Mother could make such a statement. He hadn't had a clue that T'Les was the Clan Mother for T'Pol's Clan. The thought that she was making a Clan Alliance with Star Fleet was enough to knock him over with a feather.

T'Pol on the other hand was amused at the announcement although she was grateful to learn that Enterprise would be returning. She had no wish to remain on Vulcan until the speculation had died down. She was amused because she knew that T'Pau was behind her mother's announcement. A Clan Alliance with Star Fleet would publicly state just how her family and Clan viewed Humans. And with her marriage there was nothing that anyone could do or say to prevent it. It was just the sort of political maneuvering that T'Pau was becoming famous for.

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"I just don't understand it," Archer said quietly to Admiral Forrest as he led Ambassador Soval to Trip's former quarters. As it was the largest of the open quarters it was becoming the unofficial VIP quarters. The higher the passenger's rank, the more likely it was that the passenger would end up there. The Vulcan Ambassador walked silent behind the two Humans. "Why would the Vulcan High Command kick us out of their territory and then turn around and ask us to bring their people back to Vulcan? Not that I'm not grateful. They didn't give us enough time to recall our people from Vulcan. I still have three crewmen there."

"You are correct that these actions would not be logical Captain Archer but you are working under a faulty theory," Soval stated. "It was not the Vulcan High Command that requested that Enterprise transport us back to Vulcan. It was the Vulcan High Council."

Archer wasn't surprised that Soval had heard him but he was surprised that the elderly Vulcan had answered. He opened the door to the VIP quarters and ushered them in. "I've never heard of the Vulcan High Council sir. What is it?" he asked respectfully.

Soval settled on the bunk and gestured to the men for one to take a seat at the desk. Archer deferred to Forrest and leaned against the bulkhead. "The Vulcan High Command is our military. Centuries ago they were charged with all dealings with alien species. That is why all Vulcan Ambassadors work for the High Command. The High Council is our government. It is they who have requested your services. As to the reason behind their request, I do not have that information." That was an outright lie, although it was one that Soval did not wish to make. He was one of the undercover investigators for the High Council into Administer V'Las' actions.

"May I ask which crewmembers are still on Vulcan Captain?" Soval changed the subject not so much to distract the Humans from the direction the conversation was taking as to distract himself. The knowledge of what was now being loaded into the Enterprise cargo bay was a heavy one. One that he felt he should have been able to prevent. How could he have not seen that V'Las would have gone that far to protect his interests?

Archer sighed. "SubCommander T'Pol and Commander Tucker were being seen by the Vulcan Mind Healers. It was mostly a check up to see how much they've recovered since the attack on their bond. After that they were scheduled to get married in a Vulcan ceremony at Mount Seleya. Dr. Phlox went with them to deliver them to the Healers. I wasn't given any time to contact them much less retrieve them before we were ordered to leave Vulcan space."

Soval nodded. Although he would have preferred Dr. Phlox being available to treat those still ill from the virus he was confident that the doctors the Earth government had provided were capable. "Do you know when the ceremony is to take place?"

Archer sighed. "It'll be long over by the time we get there. Lieutenant Reed and I were to be Commander Tucker's attendants. I hope they found someone to take our place. For that matter, I hope nothing goes wrong and we can get them all back here on Enterprise."

"There should be no problems on Vulcan," Soval said. 'At least no problems for your people,' he thought. "Are the arrangements I asked for complete?"

Archer had learned from T'Pol that the stonier the face, the stronger a Vulcan was controlling his or her emotions. "Yes sir. Everything is set up in Cargo Bay Three," he said quietly. That was where the bodies were being placed for the journey to Vulcan.

Soval nodded. "When we will be leaving for Vulcan?" he asked.

"As soon as everyone is on board, perhaps another hour," Archer said. He didn't want to tell the Ambassador that Star Fleet was taking the opportunity to restock Enterprise as much as possible while he was getting the Vulcans settled. "We'll leave you to get settled in. There are meditation candles in the cabinet here," he said and ushered Forrest out. He still had to get the Admiral settled in for the journey as well.

"How bad is it?" Archer asked once they were in the Admiral's quarters.

"It looks like a Vulcan did this Jon. I just can't figure out why!" Forrest growled as he sat down on the tiny couch. "Hopefully we'll get some answers when we get to Vulcan."

"I wouldn't count on it sir," Archer said.


	29. Wedding Parties

Chapter 29

(Language is English)

Major Hayes was in a quandary. First off all he was supposed to be on short term leave. Having a weekend leave wasn't much fun on this planet but he had managed to find a volcanic phenomenon to study. Volcanoes were his hobby and the Vulcan Fire Plains were frankly the best site he'd ever seen in person. They were hands down better than anything he'd seen on Earth. They were almost enough to make him want to shift over to those Star Fleet punks if this was the sort of thing they got to see regularly. On the other hand, Star Fleet was for those who couldn't make it in the MACOs and MACOs were the ones who guarded embassies. They had inherited that duty from the Marines their service was descended from. It would be far easier to sign up for more guard duty on other planets.

The second problem was that everyone around here had seemingly gone nuts. There was no way a Human had smuggled a virus into the Vulcan Embassy on Earth. Not with two different security systems and teams going over everyone and every thing going into that building. Plus there were security measures in place that no one knew about outside of those who served on those security teams. He also knew for a fact that both teams had secretes that they'd kept from each other too. Hayes had spent six months there preparing for his tour of duty here. It just wasn't possible; which meant that a Vulcan had to have created the virus on site. There were enough scientists running around that building to make it possible.

So here he was, stuck in a Vulcan monastery, while the Vulcans in general went nuts. He wasn't sure if he was a prisoner, or a guest or what. If he was a prisoner he had the duty to escape. Only he was behind enemy lines if that was the case, and in the middle of the worst desert on the entire planet. There was a reason it was called the Forge. There was no way he'd survive an escape attempt. If he was a guest, then he had overstayed his leave and was now AWOL. That was something that had never happened to him before. He was a MACO and extremely proud of if. He would never bring shame to his service like that.

On the other hand, from what he had been able to pick up from the locals, you didn't ever disobey the old broads that were hanging out here. Learning the local language was something that every embassy guard did their best to do as you never knew what sort of information you could pick up from listening to the man on the street. Listening, not talking; embassy guards stood duty, they didn't talk to tourists. Who knew, the old ladies might just be the equivalent of the local governor. And he was under orders to obey any reasonable request from the locals.

He was pacing the guest room; he guessed it was proper to call it a cell either way as it had belonged to one of the monks before he was put in here, when another Human walked in. "I thought all of the other Humans got kicked off the planet?" he asked as he held out his hand. "Major J. Hayes, MACO."

Trip smiled, "Commander Trip Tucker, Star Fleet, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise."

"Why don't you sit down Commander? I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of accommodations but we can share the bunk if you're willing."

"Better than those pillows they use around here. I know these guys are priests and such but would a chair inside the rooms kill 'em?" Trip chuckled as they both sat down on the bed. It was the only piece of furniture in the room other than a meditation pillow in front of a firepot.

"Do you know what's going on Commander?" Trip noticed that although the guy was as relaxed as possible under the circumstances, he didn't stop using Trip's rank. Hayes had to be career MACO.

"Well, I got good news and I got bad news," Trip started.

"I'll take the bad first."

Trip nodded. He'd expected no less from a MACO, they were as bad as Malcolm in his opinion. "It's pretty bad. The head of the Vulcan High Command has committed mass murder of his own people and blamed it on us. Almost every Vulcan at their embassy is dead, killed by a virus that he ordered released. His name is V'Las and he's using their deaths to kick us out and cut off diplomatic relations. What I'm really afraid of is that this guy is planning a coup. The High Command is the Vulcan Military, the High Council rules the planet and right now the entire council is right here." Trip pointed to the ground. "Normally they're scattered all over the planet taking care of their own Clans and the Clan Mothers just send their chosen reps to the High Council meetings in Shi'Kahr. But they're having this huge ceremony right now that involves all of the Clans. It's a perfect setup for V'Las and whoever is working for him."

"How does kicking us out work into that?" Hayes asked, his mind searching for answers.

Trip grinned evilly. "I don't think he knew that I was down here. He knew just when Enterprise was supposed to get here but we made it in a little early. I think he wanted to make sure that my wife and I weren't on the planet when he set things into motion. You see, I'm married to Enterprise's FO and she's Vulcan, and the daughter of a Clan Mother. We're having a Vulcan marriage ceremony as part of the big to-do here. And when that happens, it will cement an alliance between her Clan and Star Fleet. That in turn will take some if not all of the power away from V'Las if I'm reading the situation right."

"You're married to a Vulcan, sir?" Hayes asked.

Trip laughed. "I know what you're thinking. I'm a sick bastard for hooking up with a Vulcan. But they're a good people in general and you can see from what's going on that they aren't that different from us."

"And you love her," Hayes said. He'd seen it before. Tucker might be around his age but he'd seen enough youngsters in love among his troops to know all the signs.

"Yep," Trip said smugly. "And the really weird thing is she loves me back, although she'd never admit it. You see for Vulcans, admitting that they have emotions in any way is rude and uncivilized behavior. You're a MACO so you've probably seen enough of the Human equivalent of that over the years to understand why a lady like she is won't admit it."

"So how did the two of you hook up if she's not going to admit it? And how do you know she does?" Hayes wanted to know. What Hayes really wanted to know was how disturbed this guy really was. If he had a rational explanation then he could probably be trusted and if he didn't, well then, he'd probably have to call the priests to come take the mental patient away.

"That's easy enough. You see Vulcans are touch telepaths and they form permanent mental connections with their mates called bonds. Their religions says that any bond that forms on its own with no conscious help from those involved is a bond created by God, who they call the Other by the way. Now the bond that T'Pol and I have is one of those spontaneous bonds. You can't hide how you feel from someone who is inside your head."

Hayes had to admit that was one smooth setup for Earth. He knew about the bond stuff, it was in his briefing and he'd asked about the generalities before. So Tucker probably wasn't talking out his ass about him and his wife. And if he was it didn't really matter. None of the Vulcans were going to be able to say crap about the wedding if the priests said it was set up by God. And if Tucker was right about this V'Las guy then Earth and Star Fleet was going to need the wedding and the alliance that went with it.

Xon, one of T'Pol's brothers and Skon, T'Pau's bondmate entered through the room's open door leading Dr. Phlox. "Commander Tucker, have you had time to inform Major Hayes as to the part we need him to perform in the kal'i'fee ceremony?" Skon asked.

Hayes knew that kal'i'fee meant marriage. So Tucker was serious. He looked over Tucker and noticed that he was dressed in Vulcan robes similar to what the unknown alien was wearing. He decided that he would go along with whatever Tucker would ask him. He had to support Earth in anyway that he could.

"Nope not yet, I was just getting to that." Trip turned back to Hayes. "I need a Human groomsman for the ceremony. Dr. Phlox here is going to be my best man because he serves on Enterprise with me but you're the only other Human on the planet right now. What do you say?"

"What do I have to do?"

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(Language is Vulcan)

T'Pol waited in the small courtyard in her wedding finery. There was just one last person in her wedding party who had yet to arrive. T'Pol rose to greet him as he entered. "Koss," she called as she bowed her head.

"T'Pol," he returned as walked up to her. He had wondered why his family had been called to participate in the Great Gathering. Although his family was prominent in these times, they had not been so in the days of the Awakening. His only connection to the families of the Clan Mothers was his once betrothal to T'Pol. Now that he saw her finery, he understood. As her former betrothed he would stand beside her to champion her should she call the challenge. "Does the Clan Xtmprsqzntwlfd require a champion?"

"Only as a formality," she assured him. "My marriage is to take place as part of the Clan Alliances, thus the full rites are to take place."

"I had heard that your mate was, Human." he said uneasily. Koss wasn't sure whether or not the rumors were true. The reports were so conflicting as to be utterly worthless. The only thing that was certain was that T'Pol's bond was that of chosen mates. He himself had known that for months now as the bond between them had withered. It had died a full death months ago. Skon's announcement had been merely a formality for him.

"Yes," she said simply. "My husband is the Chief Engineer of Enterprise."

"Your husband?" he asked.

"We have already married in the manner of his people. We now marry in the manner of mine," she said.

"I am curious to meet the man who the Other has chosen for you."

"He is Human," T'Pol warned him. Then she changed the subject. "Have you found a new betrothed? I do not wish you ill."

"I was fortunate. One of my colleagues had no betrothed as her parents wished for her to choose her own mate. Her name is T'Pring and she has accepted my proposal." Koss was actually pleased with the new arrangement. He was not fond of non-Vulcans and would rather spend his days in his studio designing buildings than have to deal with aliens. T'Pol, he knew was fascinated by the unknown. T'Pol was far better off with her mate just as he was with T'Pring.

"I wish you both well," T'Pol said without rancor. She had never truly wanted Koss. She personally thought he was the dullest person on the face of Vulcan; halfwits had more personality than he did. She had said a prayer of thanks to the Other every night since the Healer had proclaimed her bond to Trip was real.

"It is time," called T'Pau. Silently the wedding party together to travel to Mount Seleya.


	30. Dealing with V'Las

Chapter 30

No matter what Administer V'Las' opinion, the Clan Mothers of Vulcan were not stupid old women. They may have ranged in age from a mere 195 to a tottering 275 but they were all descendents of warrior stock. They all knew that they were bait for what they considered a madman. While it was not possible to fully understand madmen, they did have history to show them what his probable responses were as well as his possible goals. And the most common goal was personal power, something that he could never achieve fully on Vulcan. No male could rule here.

Even Surak himself had acknowledged the fact that it was the Clan Mothers who truly ruled Vulcan. But then his goal had not been personal power. His goal had been the survival of his people. The Clan Mothers of the time had been suspicious of his motives, as they had been of any male's. But he had proven himself. In the present the Clan Mothers were well aware that the subtle discrimination of the past against males was merely prejudice and what it was related to. Males weren't completely raging beasts with no control over themselves. That only happened once every seven years and wasn't their fault anyway. It was simply a fact of biology. Outside of their time males were just as logical and efficient as females but few females would talk about the fact that they were nearly as effected as the males during their time. They just showed it differently.

That didn't mean a male would ever be allowed to rule Vulcan. Tradition would not allow it. If a Vulcan male wished to rule, he would be much more likely to succeed by leaving Vulcan altogether. There were many ways a Vulcan male could come to power, all legitimate. Petitioning to start a colony, becoming Clan Representative, or becoming Administrator of the High Command were but a few but V'Las was apparently one of those few who had decided that it was not enough. The real concern was who were his followers?

The real work of the alliances had already been done. Now all that remained was the ceremonies that would take place on Mount Seleya. Each Clan walked their way up the mountain path to the ceremony grounds, the Clan Mothers being carried in litters. The ceremonies were thousands of years old, each one having been set down long before the Time of Awakening. But the Clan Mothers, the members of the High Council and those who were most deeply involved knew that this time things weren't likely to go according to the program. Even for Vulcans the worst part was not knowing what was going to happen. But everyone knew that the probability was high that during the ceremonies V'Las would strike.

Clan Xtmprsqzntwlfd was the first, followed by the small three member group of aliens, although few knew that those under the heavy outer robes weren't Vulcan. From the moment the bells and ancient garb were seen everyone knew that a wedding would take place today. Most believed that the groom came from the Clan that followed, Tbvqtyhncxdslk, those that knew better did not try to correct the misassumption. The one thing that everyone was sure of was that the full rites were being done. There was no other reason for so many people to be armed; even the litter bearers were armed to the teeth.

'And they aren't just armed with antique weapons either,' Major Hayes smirked to himself. He knew that hidden among the sashes and robes of the armed Vulcans around him were the Vulcan version of phase pistols and that not all of those who appeared unarmed were. In fact the only ones who most definitely weren't armed were Commander Tucker, SubCommander T'Pol and that guy Koss. Not that Hayes considered Koss to be at all someone to be afraid of. He was slightly over weight and definitely out of shape, something that Hayes held in contempt.

He and the good doctor were among those who were visibly armed. Dr. Phlox had told him that their ceremonial duties were mainly to get Commander Tucker to the wedding without anyone interfering. Hayes wasn't sure just what the doctor wasn't saying, but he seemed to be amused at the whole thing. It didn't make sense to Hayes, seeing as how there was a good chance that they would be attacked at some point today.

Trip knew just why he wasn't allowed to have any weapons. Quite often when this wedding ceremony took place the groom was in full plak'tow, the Blood Fever or very close to it. That was not a good time for a Vulcan male to have weapons of any kind, at least not if the wedding was going to be concluded without bloodshed. Unfortunately he didn't think that was going to help this time. Not that he was in plak'tow or that he was going to cause any trouble. But V'Las was sure to do so and he just knew that blood would be spilled today. He hoped that there would be enough Healers on hand.

T'Pol was also concerned about the possibility of violence. She knew that they were as prepared as they could be but the possibilities that faced them were daunting. She gave a slight nod to her sister T'Mir, who had been surreptitiously scanning the mountainside. V'Las had people on the mountain. T'Mir dropped back in the precession and touched T'Pol's hand. Through their family link she said //There are twenty Vulcan males around the outside of the ceremony grounds. I believe that they are planning on cutting us off from the path down the mountain. There is no one at the ceremony grounds themselves or in the temple.//

T'Pol sent back agreement. She was not a great tactician herself but it was a reasonable assumption. The ceremony grounds were merely a platform on an isolated peak with a narrow entry way from the temple on the side of the mountain. If V'Las' men waited until they were all in the temple and ceremony grounds, or worse all on the ceremony grounds, then they could completely cut them off. Or rather they could if no one had been expecting them. More than one person had bondmates among the household guards stationed at the T'Karath Sanctuary just waiting to be called.

The information spread up and down the column of people by those who were aware of the circumstances through a simple touch here and there. Bondmates shared the information with each other and passed it to their children. Where there was no such link, friends passed simple looks and slight nods. Most were still ignorant, as those who did know of the approaching conflict did not wish to for the ambushers to become aware of the trap laid out for them. On the surface it was a perfect trap, the only question was, who would be the ones trapped at the end?

V'Las did wait until everyone had entered the ceremonial grounds. Just as the priests began the opening prayers of the ceremony V'Las' troops shot the priest in charge, killing him instantly. Few had expected that the priests might be in any danger. This was proving to be more than just a matter of someone attempting to take control of the government. Priests and priestesses by their very nature were exempt from any strife. Even in the days before the Awakening, no one voluntarily killed one.

V'Las marched down the narrow spindle that connected the ceremonial grounds to the temple. He didn't realize that the troops behind him, all armed with heavy rifles, were being counted and their placements being sent back to the household guards running up the trail behind them. He spoke loudly to the shocked gathering. "I am V'Las. From this moment on you are my prisoners. Should any of you try to attempt to escape, I will leave your fate to Vulcan's Forge."

Everyone knew that to try and cross Vulcan's Forge without preparation was suicide. Few made the attempt once they passed their kahs-wan as children. The dangers of the great desert were many and varied, from laymatas and wild sehlats to carnivorous vegetation and sparse water. They made no attempt to answer V'Las and he took their silence as agreement. "Good, I see that I have your attention."

Trip was following the announcements with T'Pol's help and was aware that V'Las didn't have just their attention. He also had their contempt, distain and a host of other emotions that were skillfully being controlled. How the man could not sense the violence stewing beneath the surface was beyond him. He was mindblind to anyone other than T'Pol and he could feel the emotions of the crowd crawling on his skin. "Is he that much of an idiot?" Hayes breathed in his ear. Trip figured from Hayes' question that the man knew the language. He just nodded back.

As quiet as the words were, many of the Vulcans around him heard them. The alien words where few had known an alien was were quickly set aside, although those who understood what was said agreed with the alien's sentiment completely. They continued to focus on the threat before them. The armed guards that ringed the ceremonial grounds were the only thing that stood between them and V'Las. Those that could surrounded the Clan Mothers, placing themselves as a second wall of living flesh between them and the madman.

"Your actions are futile," V'Las said contemptuously. "They will die and so will those of you that oppose me. The time has come for the Reunification with our outcast brothers and you women will pay for what you have done for so long!" The mutual contempt between the two factions deepened upon the so called prisoner's viewing of V'Las' blatant emotionalism. The prisoners had no problems with the way things were run on Vulcan. They had been that way for far longer than the mere 2,000 years since Surak. There had never been any reason to change things in all that time. If there had been, Surak himself would have said so when he was preaching logic and the mastery of emotion. V'Las was clearly mad.

There was also his intention of Reunification. No one had any idea if any of the Sundered had survived their exile from Vulcan. In the 2,000 years since they had left no one had heard directly from them. There were always rumors of course but nothing concrete had ever been found. Even if he did have solid evidence that they had survived, there was no telling if they would be even willing to talk to the descendents of those who had exiled them, much less be willing to take part in Reunification.

As V'Las continued to rant about how the Clan Mothers had subjugated males for the final time and the glory that would come from joining those who marched beneath the wings of the raptors, the household guards finally made it up the trail to the temple. From there, it was over in a matter of minutes, although it was not without casualties. The firefight behind him quickly gained V'Las' attention. Without bothering to acknowledge the other both Trip and Hayes worked their way through the crowd to the pathway.

As V'Las realized his troops were loosing to the household guards he turned back to fire his weapon at the Clan Mothers, determined to take at least one of them with him. He fired and Trip deliberately took the shot for T'Les, V'Las' target. Hayes immediately returned fire, fatally wounding V'Las. As Trip fell, his hooded robe fell away from his face. Shock ran throughout the crowd as they saw his Human features.


	31. The Vulcan Wedding

A/N: Let's see if ffnet will let me get it right this time. Vulcan is in " " English is in ( ) and // indicates telepathy through the bond.

Chapter 31

"Out of my way! Move! I'm a Healer!" shouted Phlox as he threw his own hood back and pushed his way through the crowd. He barely took note of the guards taking V'Las and his troops into custody. His attention was focused solely on Trip. The other Healers in the crowd, jolted from their shock, swiftly joined Phlox in tending the wounded. V'Las' troops, those who could still walk, were restrained and forced to walk down the mountain to the Sanctuary.

Quickly Phlox ordered some of the men to take Trip into temple where he could be treated. Fortunately V'Las had aimed for T'Les' heart. When Trip had gotten in the way, he had taken the blow in his side narrowly missing his liver. There were some advantages to the differences in Vulcan and Human anatomy. Trip was badly injured, but he would not die from his actions. Phlox quickly set about correcting the damage while T'Pol fought her way to her husband's side.

While Phlox and the other Healers dealt with the wounded and the household guards dealt with the prisoners, the rest of the gathering turned their backs on the commotion in the temple. Once she had everyone's attention T'Les explained what V'Las had done, both on Vulcan and on other planets. The fact that their unfortunate current situation with both Andoria and Earth was V'Las' doing was little comfort to those gathered.

"T'Les, while we are aware of V'Las' insanity and the actions needed to deal with him and his followers, no one said anything about bringing aliens here!" T'Para said firmly. She was the oldest of the Clan Mothers and most bowed to her experience. Unable to walk unassisted, she was helped over to where T'Les was standing by two of the young men who had carried her litter. "This is our most sacred place. How could you bring outsiders here?"

"But it was not outsiders that I brought T'Para," T'Les said gently. "Did you not see what they were wearing? The honorable man who was injured in my place is my youngest daughter's bondmate. They have been examined many times in the last few months by both Priests and Healers. All have said the same thing. Commander Charles Tucker and my daughter T'Pol are chosen mates. My Clan will ally with the Human's Star Fleet through this marriage. My son-to-be's attendants are the Healer Phlox who serves with him and T'Pol on board Enterprise and Major Hayes, who serves as the head of security at the Human Embassy in Shi'Kahr. There are no other non-Vulcans here." T'Les' serene look defied anyone to find her actions illogical.

They stood inside a circle of the other Clan Mothers, more than one leaning on the arm of a litter bearer. The litter bearers were all grandsons and great grandsons of the Clan Mothers, specially chosen for this honor by their excellence in the ancient martial skills. They also served as personal guards should the occasion warrant, as this one had. T'Para thought the matter over for a few moments. She was not pleased with non-Vulcans being brought here but she could not dispute T'Les' logic. "Once more Clan Xtmprsqzntwlfd shows a grasp of logic that leads the way of all Vulcans. You are worthy of the man your House once produced T'Les. A Clan Alliance with Star Fleet will do much to undo V'Las' treachery and Commander Tucker has proven himself to be more than worthy of the honor the Other has chosen for him."

T'Les gave a short bow to acknowledge T'Para's assessment. The T'Para turned to the remaining priests. "What is done is done. The Gathering must still continue. We have much to do as we have been delayed. Continue," she ordered.

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T'Pol hovered anxiously over Trip while to one side Phlox worked on his wound. She touched her fingers to his, the only thing she was allowed to do here in public. //You just had to jump in front of my mother didn't you?// she asked him.

//Aw honey, its not that bad!// he said. He hissed as Phlox did something that he couldn't see. //I couldn't let her die!//

//I do believe we have had this conversation before.// she said.

Trip winced. They had, had this talk before, when she had been shot just a couple of months earlier. //I couldn't shove her out of the way. There wasn't anyone else who could get into the line of fire fast enough or get her out of the way. And most importantly he wasn't aiming at a place that would be instantly fatal to a Human. You took a shot near your heart. I didn't. I'll be ok with Phlox's help.// He didn't add the thought that was ringing through his mind, that T'Les was her mother.

T'Pol knew that it did not matter to Trip that T'Les was a Clan Mother or that her Clan had the highest status possible on Vulcan. All that had mattered to Trip was that T'Les was her mother and he could not allow her to be shot if he could prevent it. //There would have been three other people between V'Las and Mother had you not pushed your way to the front. I understand why you did so but I too do not like this situation. I find it distressing that you are injured, especially as we have only finished recovering from Tolaris' attack.//

(Alright Commander, you'll be fine in no time as long as you follow my orders,) Phlox said giving Trip a stern look. Trip was rather famous for not following doctor's orders and trying to get back to work far too soon for Phlox's comfort.

(Don't worry doc, I got things to work on that don't require me to get out of bed,) he said with a grin. Phlox humpffed but it was true, although Trip was aware that Phlox thought he was talking about his and T'Pol's honeymoon. He wasn't. Scotty had left him a data PADD with certain information. He was still working his way through the information but if he understood it correctly, Enterprise wouldn't have to worry about collisions again. Or at least not the same type of collisions that had occurred with the 1701. He was pretty sure that Captain Kirk hadn't known about that little present Scotty had left, just as Trip hadn't known about the slight modifications to his engine. Trip scowled again at the memory of learning what Scotty had done. Yet he did have to admit that the modifications were so slight as to be practically miniscule. That was the only reason he hadn't spotted them before.

Certain circuits had been tweaked to just fractions of a micron from where Trip would have placed them and the crystals that Scotty had installed had actually been installed in the opposite direction that he had intended, although still along the lines of the crystal's planes. He was still trying to figure out why those slight adjustments had made such an impact on his engine's performance. (Well you're very lucky Mr. Tucker,) Phlox said with a sigh as he began sealing the wound. (Not only did that shot miss your liver, I was prepared for your usual away mission outcomes and packed a full emergency medical kit. Do you think it will be possible for you to stay out of my sickbay for a while?)

(Hey! The last two times I was in sickbay had nothing to do with me!) Trip protested.

(Ah yes, I do believe that it was your wife I last treated for a similar ailment. But you were one of my patients the last time,) Phlox pointed out. He was keeping the semi argument going not so much because he hated to have Trip as a patient but because it was keeping Trip's mind off what he was doing.

(It's not my fault that I keep getting into these situations!) Trip protested. (And it wasn't me the last loony tunes wanted! He wanted T'Pol! Like I'd let him have her,) he growled the last line. He changed the subject, not wanting to think about his frequent trips to sickbay. (I need to get on my feet doc. We've got a ceremony to do.)

Phlox sighed. He had known that he wouldn't be able to keep Trip down for long. (You can get up now but I would prefer that you waited until it was time for the ceremony itself. I don't want you on your feet any longer than you have to be. Between the heat and your injury it would be far too easy for you to push yourself into a collapse. I want to avoid that.) He looked up and noticed their audience. "He can be on his feet for the ceremony but I prefer that he remain lying down otherwise."

One of the Vulcan guards nodded. "We will bring you out to the ceremony grounds when it is time for the wedding."

Phlox turned back to Trip. (Now as far as your recreational activities go,)

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Taking into consideration Commander Tucker's wound, and how he had acquired it, the wedding ceremony between Commander Charles Tucker and T'Pol, daughter of T'Les, of the Clan Xtmprsqzntwlfd was the last ceremony held that day. The Clans watched as the Human, held up by his attendants, rang the gong to start the wedding. The bells rang in answer and T'Pol was led up to him. The new priest began the ceremony as they both knelt across from each other. There was a long, drawn out part on different gods or elements or something that Trip didn't quite understand. But he did understand the section where Koss, T'Pol's ex was asked if he wanted to basically kill Trip so he could have T'Pol. Trip couldn't help the smirk on his face as he saw the relief on both T'Pol's face and Koss' when he declined. He'd have to thank Hoshi later for helping him memorize the ceremony. The priest touched their heads and they touched fingers but there was nothing for the priest to do, they were already bonded. They spoke their vows in turn, both in Vulcan.

If anyone internally winced at Trip's pronunciation, he couldn't tell and no one outwardly showed how badly his accent was mangling the words. Having gotten through his vows Trip finally let T'Pol help him to fully understand the rest of the ceremony. Not that understanding all of the words really helped him all that much. These were the full rites and thus they were full of references that Trip had never heard before. //Truthfully you're not missing much.// T'Pol told him. //Few have ever heard them outside of the temples.//

//Priests of every religion all over the galaxy all have their secrets T'Pol. Some are just the 'oh you wanted to know that?' sort and some are things that a priest would die before telling. Seeing as how these are part of the wedding ceremony, I'd say that these are more of the first sort than the second.// Trip said. He could feel her agreement and relief that it was almost all over. //Hey, remember we've still got a party to go to back on Earth.//

//That will be far preferable to being anywhere near Koss again. His presence is making me nauseous.// T'Pol said bluntly. Trip couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day.


	32. Small Details Before Shore Leave

Chapter 32

T'Pau, escorted by her bondmate Skon, were the first Vulcans to board the Human Star Fleet ship Enterprise when it returned to Vulcan. While she was here to complete her duties as High Council representative, she also wanted to see her son as soon as possible. Loosing a betrothed mate was not as devastating as loosing a full bondmate but that did not mean it was not difficult. She could only hope that the Humans had treated her son well.

It was three days after the Grand Gathering at Mount Seleya and two days after V'Las' death. After they had been seated at the conference room table, T'Pau turned to Soval. "V'Las is dead. He died of wounds he received attempting to assassinate the Clan Mothers at the Grand Gathering. Your evidence against him will not be needed other than your formal report."

Soval bowed his head. "I found it very disturbing that I was not able to anticipate his actions in ordering the release of the virus at the Embassy."

"No one could have Soval," she said firmly. "He was insane. He thought he could bring about Reunification and rule Vulcan." Admiral Forrest and Captain Archer could see that this information meant a great deal to Soval. She then turned to Archer. "Captain, your efforts on the part of my sister T'Pol, in the matter of her bonding has been invaluable."

"You're T'Pol's sister?" Archer asked shocked. "You wouldn't be Sarek's mother would you?"

"I am and Skon is his father," T'Pau said. She had not been aware that Captain Archer knew of the relationship between T'Pol and Sarek, although it was logical for him to make that connection. He would have been there when Spock introduced himself to T'Pol.

"I can have him brought to you or I can have someone take you to his quarters as soon as you wish. He's not doing as well as Dr. Evans would like, although he wasn't exposed to the virus." Archer said, his own face showing an amount of worry that startled all of the Vulcans. Archer smiled in response, "Human families come in two different categories, one is related by genetics and the other is chosen. T'Pol is a part of our family here on Enterprise, thus her nephew is a part of our family too. We've tried to support him as best as we could but we know that he needs you right now."

Both Vulcans inclined their heads and shot each other a quick glance before Skon spoke. "My bondmate has duties here that must be fulfilled. I will accept your offer of an escort to my son Captain."

"Lieutenant Reed will take you sir," Archer said and Malcolm stepped forward to lead the way.

"This way sir," he said. As he led Skon down the hallways to the small guest quarters where Sarek was staying he filled Skon in on what had been happening with his son. "We're not exactly sure what is wrong with him but Dr. Evans is certain that he wasn't exposed to the virus. However, he hasn't been eating or sleeping. He has spent most of his time meditating but we're really starting to get worried."

"How long has this behavior been happening?" Skon asked. He was aware of just what was wrong with his son but was wondering how the Humans saw the situation.

"Since he came on board," Malcolm reported. "We checked on him several times in the first day but then Chef reported that he had not eaten any meals. That's when we took up our vigil. We know that something is wrong and we wanted to make sure that he knew he wasn't alone. We did ask, but he declined to answer and we didn't press. All of the Vulcan passengers have had physicals to make certain that they didn't come in contact with the virus."

"What has this vigil consisted of?" Skon asked concerned.

"Someone has been with him around the clock. We've done our best to make certain that he wasn't disturbed but someone was always in the room with him. We've also tried to ensure that the person with him has a calm nature in case the reason for his unusual behavior was of a telepathic nature." Malcolm answered. He gestured to the door of the quarters they had stopped in front of. "This is his cabin." He opened the door and stood in the open doorway.

On one side of the cabin Sarek knelt in meditation and on the other side sat Hoshi with a data PADD. When Malcolm looked over she shook her head, no change. She silently went over to the door. "He hasn't said anything in the last six hours. I'm really worried Malcolm. I know Vulcans can go without food and water for a while but,"

"Don't worry Hoshi, this is Skon, he's Sarek's father." Malcolm introduced them. "This is Ensign Sato sir, she's our communications officer."

Hoshi greeted Skon in his own language and then continued in English. "I know it is inappropriate for me to be here sir, but I am the only one on board that speaks Vulcan. Your son has spoken no English since his arrival and I have acted as translator. Normally we would have had Dr. Phlox looking after him but he is still on Vulcan." She didn't say anything about how those who had taken the other shifts had UT's to help if Sarek had spoken. She doubted Skon would have understood the Human need for untranslated spoken language in times of stress. "We still do not know what is wrong. As far as the doctor can tell he's fine physically. He has spent most of his time in meditation. If there is anything we can do for you or him, please tell us. We'll be on the bridge."

Skon considered what Archer had told him about Human families and the way Ensign Sato had acted as she had left his son's cabin. If he understood the concept correctly, the Ensign was acting as a surrogate sister to his bondmate. "Your concern for my son and your actions are understandable. I will inform you if anything more is required." He entered the cabin and closed the door.

Hoshi and Malcolm exchanged glances and started for the bridge. "Did you find out anything?" Hoshi asked.

"Apparently Administer V'Las of the High Command was behind both the assault on the Vulcan Embassy and the cutting off of relations with Earth. He tried to take over Vulcan and got himself killed in the process. T'Pol's sister T'Pau is with the Captain and the Admiral now. She represents the Vulcan High Council." Malcolm said.

"Well it's good to know that a Human wasn't responsible at least," Hoshi sighed before entering the bridge. They both went to their respective stations; Hoshi, communications and Malcolm, command and relieved the crewmen on duty there. "Sir, we're being hailed; private transmission from Vulcan for Captain Archer."

"I'll take it in his ready room Ensign," Malcolm said as he headed off the bridge.

Once seated at the Captain's desk, he activated the communications link. "Hey Malcolm! Is the Captain busy?" The caller was Trip. He was seated at a desk and Malcolm thought he was calling from a private residence.

"Yes, he's meeting with the High Council Representative now. Are you three alright?" Malcolm asked worried.

"Well let's just say that whoever had I'll get shot in the pool won," Trip grinned. He waved down the shout he could see gathering on Malcolm's face. "I'm fine, Dr. Phlox was prepared and he had me fixed up right away. No one else on our side was hurt. The three of us will be headed up to Enterprise at 1900 hours."

"That sounds good. Did you ever make it to your wedding?" Malcolm asked. "Or did your injuries and the situation preclude that?"

"I was injured at the wedding," Trip admitted. "Mule headed Vulcan nut job tried to kill T'Pol's mom and I got in the way."

"And of course you being you, you couldn't let anyone shoot any unarmed woman much less your mother in law. Don't you know that most men would love to see their mother in law shot while keeping their hands clean?" Malcolm smirked. It was good to see his friend alive and mostly well. That situation was all too common as Trip spent more time recuperating from his misadventures than he spent without injury.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. I'm not hurt that bad. The guy was going for a heart shot and Vulcans' hearts are in their sides, not the middle of their chests. Besides I like T'Les, she's a neat lady for a Vulcan," Trip grinned. "Is there anything else we can bring you when we come back?"

"I'm sure Chef would like a few Vulcan vegetables and the like. He wants to make that Vulcan dish the SubCommander likes so well, the one I can't pronounce," Malcolm said eager to have that dish again. T'Pol wasn't the only one that enjoyed it.

"I'll see what I can do, Tucker out."

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"Why is it every time we get married, one of us gets hurt?" Trip mock whined as T'Pol helped him to lie down on their bunk. It was the first time in over a week that they had set foot in their quarters.

"Because we are self sacrificing individuals who are involved in history making events," T'Pol said dryly.

Trip had to laugh at that as he sent his agreement back at her. They did have an inclination towards giving things up for other people. Not that it was a bad thing for people in their professions but it did take its toll on their bodies. "I just hope nothing bad happens while we're on Risa. We need some down time."

"Indeed, we are not the only ones who are in need of rest from stressful situations," T'Pol said as she put away the few items that they had brought with them from Vulcan.

"How is Sarek? Is he going to be ok?" Trip knew that the betrothal bond wasn't anywhere near as strong as a marriage bond but he still worried about the boy.

"He will be fine. In fact he will be returning to Earth with the new Embassy staff." T'Pol said as she completed her task. "It is well that he will be able to return to his work so quickly. He was disturbed that his abrupt departure might have negative effects on the Human children he was working with."

"He's working with Human kids? He's the one Soval sent to help out at the kindergarten?" Trip asked with a huge smile. "That's the best sort of assignment he could have right now. Kids are wonderful to be around when you're hurting. There's just something about how happy they can be at the smallest things that lifts you up no matter how far down you are."

"He has informed me that he finds his work most satisfactory, although quite confusing at times. It seems that Human children are even more illogical than adults," T'Pol said.

Trip could hear quite a few things through their bond that didn't sound in her voice; surprised wonderment that it was possible, amusement at the memory of Trip declaring himself 'just a big kid', worry about their own children, even pride in her nephew for taking on such an important assignment. "That's good. I was a bit worried that he wouldn't be able to go back. For a future diplomat this is the best time to be on Earth. Watching how Earth gov and the High Council work out a new relationship with each other will be a practical lesson on how the governments of two alien species can get along as long as they have the right incentive to do so. Not to mention that I'm sure those kids are going to be missing him."

T'Pol nodded and returned to their bunk. She sat down astride him and said, "With Soval as a mentor he will undoubtedly be able to directly observe the proceedings. It will no doubt be a valuable learning tool for his future."

"Yep, first hand experience is always best," Trip agreed as he drew his fingers over her lips, up her jaw and outlining her ear. "Maybe we should get some more of our own," he said huskily.

"That does seem to be reasonable," T'Pol said breathily as she leaned down to kiss her bondmate. There were quite a few things that could only be truly understood through experiencing them.


	33. Shoreleave Pt 1

Chapter 33

With all of the stresses of the last few months, shore leave just about anywhere would have had the crew of the Enterprise in a state of repressed excitement. The opportunity of taking shore leave on Risa, a purely tourist planet, was more than welcome. Captain Archer had scheduled the Enterprise for nine days stay, so that all of the crew could at least get at least three days leave down on the planet. The crew's newlyweds were using the time as a honeymoon, although T'Pol still wasn't sure that it had quite the same meaning as the Vulcan time of Seclusion.

Trip knew that he wasn't up for Seclusion in any case. Pon Farr was nothing to mess around with and although he was officially cleared for duty, he still wasn't up for anything that strenuous. No a Human honeymoon was just what the doctor ordered, days with nothing more frustrating than teaching a Vulcan how to swim and nights filled with gentle loving. Of course he had serious doubts that he would be able to get T'Pol to do anything more than just swim on the surface. The idea of putting her head under the water was enough to cause her some serious discomfort, if not down right fear although she would never admit it. Having seen Vulcan for himself, Trip could understand why and wasn't about to push it.

Sitting in the shuttlepod headed for the surface, Trip glanced over the faces of those who were taking the first shift of the three day leaves. Archer had put the entire crew on a lottery for their rotation, everyone would get the three days but which of the three days was purely left to chance. And that chance had led to nearly the entire alpha shift of the bridge crew going in the first wave, only Travis was left behind.

Swirling around for days now had been talks of the crew's plans for their shore leaves. Malcolm and Hoshi were discussing the differences between a traditional shore leave ( read bar crawl ) and Hoshi's determination to check out the cultural sites available. Archer had loudly informed anyone who asked that he and his beagle Porthos were headed for an isolated mountain cabin and he wasn't to be contacted for anything less than an interstellar emergency. Everyone knew where Trip and T'Pol were headed although most were surprised that they would accept Tavin's hospitality.

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Trip had been surprised with how nice Tavin's family getaway was. The rooms were large and airy, and the view from the wrap around porch was great. They had a view of everything from the beach all the way up to the mountain at the center of the island. He had to admit that it was a great spot for meditation, quiet and peaceful.

They unpacked their clothes out of their duffels and split up to explore the house. T'Pol made a through examination of the kitchen, making certain that it was well stocked. Trip just poked his head into the various rooms around the place. There were a couple of studies and a well stocked library. The sitting room was filled with the sort of furniture that he had learned was common on Vulcan, carved stone covered with pillows. But it was the last room that really caught his attention. There was no doubt what this room was used for, not when the only real piece of furniture in it was a large stone platform covered in bedding and shackles at appropriate intervals.

T'Pol felt Trip's agitation across their bond and came looking for him. When she saw what room he was looking at she realized just what was disturbing him. "There is no reason to think that my cycle will have any effect on you. You are Human, not Vulcan and therefore are not very likely to experience Plak Tow."

"But I might," Trip said. "There is no way to know ahead of time because there has never been a bonding like ours."

"We will deal with it when the time comes," T'Pol said. "I know that whatever happens we will get through it together."

"I just don't want to hurt you," Trip said.

"Nor do I wish to hurt you," T'Pol returned. "No one knows what will happen when I experience the Piyahtaya Pohshau, the Ripening Fire. That does not mean that it is inevitable that we will do each other harm."

"Yeah, I get it; don't borrow trouble." Trip turned his back on the Seclusion chamber and caught the look T'Pol was giving him. "That means don't worry about things that you can't change or things that won't happen for years. Did you find any rope?"

Having learned by now to ignore such abrupt changes of subject T'Pol replied, "No, I have been investigating the stores in the kitchen."

"Good thing I came prepared then," Trip said. "Let's go check out the beach." Wondering what Trip had come up with now T'Pol followed him. Trip grabbed up one of his bags and pulled out a length of rope and a blanket before heading down to the beach. Once there she watched as Trip picked out two trees and tied one end of the rope to one. Working quickly Trip turned the blanket and the rope into a hammock.

T'Pol had seen hammocks in Trip's memories before but hadn't realized that Trip knew how to make one. "You are very efficient. This will make a pleasant place for you to study Mr. Scott's force field generator technology."

"It's also the perfect place for us to snuggle," Trip said as he picked her up and set them both to swinging.

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Lieutenant Malcolm Reed was a gentleman born and bred. His family had served in the English Navy for centuries and he had been raised to personify the ideal of an officer and a gentleman. That was why he had graciously given in and let Hoshi plan their shore leave. He had thought that he would much rather have gone on a traditional bar crawl than sample the local version of culture. He was wrong. Hoshi's delight in both learning a new language, something that had happened during a trip into an art exhibit, and in the new things that they saw there were enough to make him realize that he was having more fun watching her than he would have had otherwise.

He didn't know it but more than one matron was commenting to Hoshi about what a catch she had landed in her handsome escort. Hoshi didn't try to deny the relationship that they were implying. She knew that Malcolm would never do anything inappropriate, especially as long as they had regulation issues. In a way it was very frustrating. She would never want Malcolm to change who he was so drastically, and yet she did wish that he would ignore the fraternization regs. It was enough to make her wish that something weird would happen to them the way it had to Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol. She wasn't the only one who was wishing.

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It had been a perfect day. Jonathan Archer should have realized that there was no way it was going to last. He was sitting on the porch of his rented cabin with Porthos at his feet when suddenly he realized he wasn't alone. Looking up he saw the last person he ever wanted to see again, Crewman Daniels, the Temporal Agent. "Whatever it is, the answer is no," Archer proclaimed. "I hate time travel and everything that goes with it."

"Captain Kirk's incursion into this reality has caused a ripple in the timeline that has become a tidal wave," Daniels began.

"Then go yell at him," Archer said firmly. "Daniels I really need this down time. I have just two more days before I have to get back to Enterprise. I need the time off. I can't do a thing about Kirk and his crew showing up in this universe and I'm not likely to either! They're showing up did a lot of good, both for my crew and for our relations with other worlds."

"In the short term yes, they did a lot of good but they also did a lot of damage that I have to make sure gets corrected. For instance, their interference led to Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol surviving their bonding. But because of their public bonding V'Las attempted his coup nearly four years early. That led to his killing almost every Vulcan in the Embassy on Earth and his death. It also led to your ship not being where it was supposed to be and because of that you personally will miss being in a situation that you need to be in. That situation will lead you to one very small piece of information. That information will sit in your mind for nearly two years until it is needed. Without that information, you will not have the proper mindset to deal with a certain situation in the future that is critical to the entire temporal cold war." Daniels pulled out his temporal observatory and turned it on. "Do you remember this?" he asked Archer.

"Yeah, only it was a lot, umm, smoother," Archer stood up and tried to find a word for the change in what he was seeing. The lines that he had seen before swirling around the room in harmony, were now in tangles and broken strands could be seen everywhere. There was no rhyme or reason that he could see.

"Captain Kirk informed you of the fact that Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol are bondmates. If that had not happened, V'Las would have remained as Administrator of the Vulcan High Command for another four years. He still would have committed a similar atrocity during his attempted coup, but it would have been the Human Embassy on Vulcan that would have suffered. People died this time that didn't die before and people who did die now won't. V'Las is just the start of what caused this particular reaction in the timeline. We've been able to stabilize most of the ripples caused by his early death. But it still led to what is going to cause this effect, because Enterprise isn't going to be here," and Daniels pointed to a particular point, "when she needs to be. The rest I've already told you. You need a piece of information and you can't get it without being at the right place at the right time."

Archer rubbed his eyes. He hated this with a passion. "Ok, so if I make sure that the Enterprise goes directly there after we leave orbit, will we make it in time?"

Daniels nodded. "Yes but I can't give you any more information. It is critical to restoring the timeline that you are personally involved in the situation that will result from the Enterprise being there and then. Not so much because of how your actions will affect the people involved but because you need to be there to see that small but critical piece of information."

"Why can't you just tell me what it is? I mean if the information is such a minor thing?" Archer asked.

"Without your personal involvement, the information will not affect you in the same manner. And you must be affected, Captain. That changes everything," Daniels said as he waved his hand around at the mess the time observatory is showing.

"So it's not so much the information as how it affects me," Archer said as he began to understand.

"And even more importantly, how it affects how you look at things in your future," Daniels said solemnly.

"Ok Daniels, give me the date and the coordinates and then get out of here so I can enjoy the rest of my leave."


	34. Shore Leave Pt 2

Chapter 34

After the first three days of their shore leave T'Pol now thought that the Human custom of the Honeymoon was very similar to Vulcan Seclusion. They had been spending almost as much time engaging in sex as if they were in the throes of Pon Farr. However, they also spent a great deal of time studying the information Mr. Scott of the 1701 had left them. The science behind the shield technology was sound and something that they could implement immediately. In fact, the tech was so easily implemented that Trip spent an entire hour cursing once he realized just how easy it was. While she was not inclined to curse about a situation that she could not have foreseen, she not pleased to have missed this application of technology that she was already aware of. She was also determined that it not happen again.

"Trip, if these shields can deflect things from the hull, could not a lesser strength shield create a similar barrier inside the ship?" T'Pol asked as she floated just above Trip's arms. He was attempting to teach her how to swim.

"I think you're right," he said after a moment's thought. "Malcolm would really like that if we can figure out a way to make it work. He'd love to have a way to cut off intruders if we get boarded. If we can get a force field up and working I bet the Captain would authorize a trial in the brig."

"It is the least used area on Enterprise," T'Pol agreed. She was determined to learn how to swim because it would be a useful skill to have both on away missions and on leave time as they were planning on spending their next leave on Earth with Trip's family. She had seen in Trip's memories that his family spent a great deal of time near, on or in the water. "If the force field works in sealing off the brig, then it should be possible to seal off other areas of Enterprise as well."

Trip considered the basic theory. "Start moving your arms and legs like I showed you," he said. As she did so, he thought about all the places he could put the force fields. "We might be able to section off portions of the ship at predetermined points or use them to hold atmosphere in the landing bay."

"That would be a logical progression," T'Pol said. She was so busy thinking about what they could do with functioning force fields, such as figuring out where they could get components, where the best testing areas were on Enterprise, where they could be best used, as well as the theoretical applications that she didn't realize Trip had lowered his arms to his side. He didn't leave her side, just watched as she awkwardly swam a few feet.

Then he scooped her up. "I knew you could do it!" he laughed.

T'Pol realized what had happened and nodded. "I will need considerably more practice before I can be called proficient but I seem to have mastered the basics."

Trip grinned, "Well now that calls for some celebrating." T'Pol silently agreed. Celebrating was much more pleasant than swimming.

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Travis Mayweather was mountain climbing. It was something that he'd always been interested in, although it didn't come close to being an avid interest. It was just something that he'd thought would be nice to try one day. He should have listened to his brother and forgotten the whole idea. What little experience he had on a planetary surface had not prepared him for this. He had been out in the rain before. He had even been had to climb steep hills before during a rain. But both of those had both been in San Francisco, on Earth.

San Francisco was a very civilized city, although it was a very hilly one. It was not a wilderness trek on an alien world. 'And this is the easy trek!' he thought glumly. He shuddered to think of what might have happened had he gone with his first impulse and taken the harder route. Now all he could imagine going on that trek would have brought him was a broken leg. 'Thank God I listened to Malcolm!' he thought as yet another trickle of rain water ran down his collar. 'He told me that I had to start slow. It isn't that I'm not physically capable of doing the harder routes but I lack the experience to make sure that I don't get into trouble. And trouble does happen if the slightest thing goes wrong and you don't know what you're doing. He was right to compare it to piloting. I wouldn't let a newbie fly through an asteroid belt. And now that I know just how miserable being out here can be I'm not too sure I want to keep doing this.'

He looked up ahead to see his guide at the top of the ridge, waving to him and the other people in his group. 'Just a little bit farther,' he told himself as he walked up the narrow path. Once he reached the ridge the sight took his breath away. Seeing the valley below him wrapped in the misty rain that he had just slogged through was extraordinary. The sunlight shown through the misty rain in a vibrant array of colors that reminded him of a nebula he had seen as a child. 'This wasn't such a bad idea after all.'

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Back on the Enterprise, Captain Archer was doing a walkabout with Porthos. It really wasn't so much that Porthos needed the exercise but that Archer felt he should check out his ship from stern to bow. It was just one of the little rituals that a good captain followed. Not that he was one of those captains who poked their noses too far into his crew's business. No he tried to show enough interest to let them know that he cared as well as giving them enough leeway to show that he trusted them.

That he was maintaining the right balance was shone in the cheerful greetings he received from the crew that he saw on his unofficial inspection. From the engineers right down to the galley crew everyone either seemed to be either relating what a great time they'd had on leave or talking about what their plans were for theirs'. 'All in all things seem to be going well,' Archer thought to himself as he headed into sickbay and the one person on board who wouldn't be getting much leave time at all, Crewman Cutler.

She was the only medical personnel that the Enterprise had on hand, other than Dr. Phlox and because of that would be on duty during Dr. Phlox's quarterly hibernation. Phlox had assured Archer that he shouldn't sleep more than six days and could be woken up if any emergency occurred that needed his attention. Of course he had to admit that there was the rare occasion when hibernation took longer than six days. So Cutler was on duty until Phlox woke up. Archer hoped for her sake that she didn't have much to do and could take her three days leave. On the other hand, with the information that Daniels had given him, he wanted to make sure that Phlox had all the sleep he needed before they ran into whatever trouble they were headed for.

He found Cutler immersed in a data PADD. "Can I ask what you're reading?" he asked.

"OH SIR!" she yelped as she jumped out of her chair. "I didn't hear you come in!" She placed the PADD down on the desk. "I'm studying Denobulan anatomy. I figured it would be a good idea for someone to know what to do if the doctor ever got injured."

"That is a good idea," Archer praised. "How is Phlox doing?"

Cutler straightened up, ready to give her report. "He's sleeping like a baby sir. I've only had a few minor things to deal with here, a small plasma burn and the like. There hasn't been anything life threatening."

"Good, I don't want to wake Dr. Phlox up if I don't have to. Can you make sure that our medical stores are full? If there's anything we need, I want to pick it up before we leave Risa."

Cutler was confused. 'They had been almost fully restocked when they picked up the Vulcans on Earth. Why would the Captain want an inventory of the medical supplies now? He must be expecting trouble,' she decided. There were several reasons why he wouldn't be talking about it now, the most obvious being that if he did he'd have to cancel shore leave. 'On the other hand, there's no reason why I can't spread the message that we need to be in tip top shape when we leave among those department heads that have gotten back from Risa.' "I'll get right on it Captain. It'll give me something to do besides study."

Archer thanked her and continued on his way, unaware of the scuttlebutt he had just started in his wake. By the time that he got to the bridge and his ready room, it was all over the ship. Of course the rumors were everything from there was going to be a surprise inspection from Starfleet, to they were being sent out to round up the last of the Vulcan revolutionaries to there was an alien race about to attack Earth or Vulcan, take your pick, and they were being sent to stop it.

Those who hadn't bought the wilder rumors pointed the fact that Archer hadn't announced anything. Those who did believe them pointed out that the Captain was too nice to say so because he'd have to cancel shore leave for those who hadn't gotten it yet. The naysayers disagreed because there was no way Archer wouldn't tell them if they were going into battle. The rumor mongers agreed that Archer would never send them into battle without preparing them if he could help it. They also pointed out that he wasn't the sort of person to ruin the first trip some of them had been on away from the ship since they had left Earth the first time. They thought that he would make his announcement just before they left Risa.

In fact, Archer had no plans to make any announcement at all. It wasn't that he didn't want his crew to be prepared, just that he didn't have any information to give them. He didn't know what sort of incident Daniels was sending them into, nor did he know how it would affect the ship or crew. All he knew was that he had to be at a certain point in time and space so that the Temporal Cold War didn't erupt into an all out war that resulted in the destruction of the very fabric of time itself.

He really hated his job sometimes.


	35. Shore Leave Pt 3

Chapter 35

T'Pol was a surprisingly good cook, even if all of the food was vegetarian. Trip knew that it wouldn't kill him and he did like what she was cooking. But he also knew had to eat some meat or his cravings would overwhelm her. He knew that by the end of nine days he'd be ready to kill for some of Chef's BBQ ribs or really anything. So he had thought about some alternatives before they had left and the one that came to mind almost immediately was seafood. He had checked with T'Pol and she had agreed that fish didn't fall under the 'no animal protein' rule.

It seemed that vegetarianism was mostly a cultural thing for Vulcans, rather than a biological necessity. In ancient times Vulcans had eaten meat and the reason for the change was a logical one. Meat animals on Vulcan were just as empathic as Vulcans themselves. One of the basic reasons for the philosophy of logic in the first place had been to beat into stubborn Vulcan heads that killing feeling creatures, such as their fellow Vulcans, was wrong. Fish, which wasn't a class of creature found on Vulcan, didn't have a large enough brain to actually experience anything outside of sleep, hunt and mate. And for fish those things were barely covered most of the time; at least not that any Vulcan had ever been able to tell and shellfish had even less brains.

Which was why Trip was happily grilling up the large fish he had caught this morning for lunch and T'Pol was standing out in the shallow water of the smaller of the two coves collecting some type of clam that clung to the rocks for that night's dinner. Trip found the different formations of the coves to be a source of amazement. They were situated just yards from one another and yet they were completely different. The larger cove had a perfect beach that sloped down into perfectly clear water. It was a wonderful place to swim or build sandcastles.

Trip snorted as he remembered T'Pol's look at the thought of sandcastles. She had sat next to him and obviously still wondering why any sentient being would want to, had half heartedly attempted to help him build one. Her serious face as she poked the castle with her trowel was the funniest thing he'd seen in months. When he had explained that it was the basis for the art form of sand sculptures she had understood better. It had also led to a long discussion over the various forms of sculpture produced by their different species. In the end T'Pol had admitted that she was far more comfortable as a scientist than she was as an artist. Trip had disagreed and had pointed out just how many types of art there were in the universe and just how many different degrees of artistry. He insisted that she merely hadn't found her medium yet.

Trip wrenched his mind away from the conclusion of that discussion. He didn't want to set T'Pol off while she was out in the water. He was getting better at blocking his mental wanderings from her but thoughts of sex always set her off. He was still trying to get her to understand that just because he was thinking of sex didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to have sex right that minute. He never thought that he would have to gain even more control over himself. He had thought he'd mastered that subject once he'd gotten beyond his teen years.

Trip glanced over at T'Pol. She was standing waist deep in water next to the rocky shelf of the smaller cove. The U shape of the smaller cove was lined with a rocky shelf that plunged straight down to a sandy bottom. It was covered in different types of shellfish that clung to the rocks. T'Pol was gathering enough of these for dinner. She had made significant progress on learning how to swim, enough progress that she was no longer uneasy about going into the water alone. But that did not mean that she was up for an extended swim and Trip was keeping an eye on her.

This was their last day on Risa. The next morning they were scheduled to return to Enterprise and resume their interrupted tour of exploration. As much as he had enjoyed this little vacation he was eager to get back to his ship. Both he and T'Pol were fully recovered from their various injuries and he was starting to get antsy. "What is antsy?" T'Pol asked.

Trip snorted in amusement. He was getting better but he would never be as good as T'Pol at managing random thoughts. "It's a combination of nervous energy and anticipation I guess. Antsy is a way of describing a feeling; kind of like having ants run up and down your nerves."

"That does not sound pleasant," T'Pol stated as she carried the basket of shellfish inside.

"Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't," Trip said as he followed her with the fish. "It mostly depends on what you're getting antsy about. If what's coming is a good thing it can be fun but if it's something you don't want to happen, well then it isn't fun and you just want to get it over with."

T'Pol nodded. "And you are antsy because we have been away from your engines for too long, correct?" Trip just nodded. "We'll be back in the morning. For now, we must have lunch and then clean the house for our hosts."

"Of course," Trip said. It had never even occurred to him to do otherwise.

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Back on the Enterprise Archer met with his senior officers. "I'm sure by now you've checked in with your departments and realized that something was up." It had taken him a couple of days but he had soon realized that his crew was hyped up and not just about their shore leaves.

Trip laughed, "You should hear some of the rumors that are flying around Cap."

"I wouldn't have thought that the crew would be telling you Commander," Malcolm said surprised.

"They aren't but they keep forgetting that she can hear them whispering too," Trip said with a jerk towards T'Pol. More than a few people had been whispering the rumors where T'Pol could clearly hear them.

"They are being very foolish," T'Pol said. "They know that the Captain will provide them with the answers they seek and yet they do not ask. Nor do they wait for his explanations. They instead make up ridiculous stories and tell them to each other." They could all clearly hear the disapproval in her voice.

"You did explain to her that gossip isn't logical right?" Malcolm whispered exaggeratedly to Trip. The two men snickered quietly as T'Pol looked sternly at them.

Archer grinned at their antics but put a halt to them. "Ok guys, enough with the comedy routine. There is something up." That sobered the men faster than anything else could have done. "Daniels showed up while I was on leave. The 1701's little trip into our universe has really screwed things up. His people are working on stabilizing things the best they can but they also need certain things to still happen the way they are supposed to. We need to be here," Archer showed them a star chart, "at this location in two days. Daniels couldn't tell me why; just that we needed to be exposed to certain types of information and that is the only way we can get it."

Archer looked grim. "I don't know what we're heading into. I have no idea what will happen when we get there. What I do know is that if we don't show up for whatever it is that we're supposed to find out there, the entire timeline could and will collapse."

That was enough for the senior crew of the Enterprise. They had seen enough of the Temporal Cold War and its effects on their lives. Daniels had given his life trying to keep the Suliban from altering history right in front of them. If an earlier version of him asked them to be at a certain place and time, it was the least they could do for him.

"Enterprise will get us there right on schedule," Trip promised.

"Security is already on the lookout. Whatever is out there, we'll be ready," Malcolm chimed in.

"Sensors are operating at peak efficiency," T'Pol said. "We will find whatever it is that Crewman Daniels wishes us to find."

"Well, it's not the first time we've been asked to save the universe or the timeline," Phlox entered the discussion for the first time. "We'll be ready Captain, no matter what the trouble is. From speaking to Doctor McCoy, I'm beginning to understand that it likely won't be the last either. Apparently there is something about starships named Enterprise that my people would call crisis attractors."

"Did he just call my ship a trouble magnet?" Archer asked rhetorically.

"I thought it was just the Commander," Malcolm said. Trip rolled his eyes but took the ribbing with good humor. He couldn't deny his status as a trouble magnet. If something went wrong it was very likely to happen to him. He'd come to learn how to roll with the punches that life threw him without loosing too much of his sense of humor over the subject.

"Ok people, let's go save the timeline one more time," Archer said as he stood up. The others took this as the dismissal it was and filed out ahead of him. It was time to go back to work.


	36. Daniels' Information

Chapter 36

"I'm coming with you sir," Malcolm announced when Archer handed out the exploration assignments for this small area of space. They had reached the coordinates that Daniels had given the Captain and Archer was determined to put that knowledge out of his mind. In order for this to work, he had to explore this area of space just like he usually would. And that meant that he would be taking Travis and a small shuttle to explore the nearest of the two solar systems while the Enterprise explored the one farther away. The nearer system wasn't very big nor did it have any planets that could support life. The other system had several planets that looked good for exploring. He and Travis would make a quick pass through the system before rejoining Enterprise.

"Malcolm, we need to do this like we don't know anything." Archer got up and paced behind his desk. There wasn't much room, but he couldn't just sit there. "We've already messed the timeline up so much it has literally taken temporal agents years, if not decades to stabilize things. I wouldn't normally take you with me to chart a small and most likely unimportant system. I'd leave you with Enterprise. So that's what we need to do."

"I understand that sir, but there is the fact that we're looking for information not scientific facts. I'm not saying that you shouldn't go or that you shouldn't take Ensign Mayweather as your pilot. But you are my commanding officer and I am responsible for your safety. I must place that first. As for Enterprise, Lewis is going to be Columbia's Armory Officer. He needs the experience of being on the bridge for this." Malcolm could only hope that Archer understood his position.

Archer sighed. He did understand what Malcolm was saying. He was too important to risk losing. The mission to save the timeline not only required that they get the information, but that he survive to later use it. "Alright Malcolm, but you don't do anything unless my life is directly in danger. You'll be playing bodyguard for this trip as much as I hate it."

"Yes sir," Malcolm nodded. He wasn't the only one to sigh silently in relief. Archer may not have wanted to admit it but he was a pivotal person in history. That meant that he had to survive long enough to make history happen.

Trip shot T'Pol a look as he felt her relief at the idea of the Captain having a bodyguard. 'We'll keep Enterprise safe and ready to back him up if he needs it. We don't know that there is going to be trouble,' he pointed out to her. The look she shot him said it all. Trip shrugged, 'Can't blame me for being optimistic.'

'Optimistic is one thing, delusional is another,' she thought back. He had to shrug in agreement. When Daniels was around, trouble soon followed and they were going to be neck deep in it soon enough.

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Everyone else on the bridge of the starship Enterprise might have bought T'Pol's cool demeanor at the information she was receiving, but her bondmate wasn't fooled. T'Pol was as pissed off as a wet cat. She was pissed off at Colonel Grat, the contact from the Tandar military, and his insistence that the Enterprise journey to his homeworld to retrieve her Captain and his officers in three days time after a formal trial. She was ticked off that Hoshi, as Communications Officer and Lewis, as current Armory Officer, were not able to find out where Colonel Grat was hailing them from. And she was pissed off at the Captain for wandering into Tandar territory even though she was more upset at the Tandar people for not marking their territory so that innocent people wouldn't be caught up in whatever nonsense these people were fussing over! She knew that Jon Archer would never have simply wandered into another people's territory without loudly announcing himself and his people if he was aware that he could be trespassing. The man was far too friendly for his own good. She was not disposed towards being overly friendly towards the Tandar either.

Trip tried to send soothing thoughts her way but backed off at the hard stare she sent him in return. This was not the time for soothing. This was the time for decisive action. As there was nothing that he could do to help Hoshi or Lewis track down where the Tandar were holding their people, he got to work on building the shield generators that Scotty had left him the schematics for. Loosing himself in the work should actually help T'Pol regain some equilibrium he hoped. At the very least, if he wasn't agitated over the loss of his friends then she wouldn't have to deal with his agitation on top of her own.

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Although it didn't show on his face, Malcolm Reed was furious with himself. Not only had he failed to realize the Tandar military's intentions in time; now he, Captain Archer and Ensign Mayweather were in a Tandar prison in the middle of a bunch of Suliban! The Tandar prison was populated with Suliban but no other races. That was the last place that Captain Archer should be. There were no allies to be had here, only enemies. One shiv or other makeshift weapon would be all it would take for the Suliban to win this damned time war.

In fact Malcolm was so busy watching for potential assassins that he almost missed the information that they were there to get. Almost, but he couldn't help but listen as Captain Archer venomously berated a Suliban man for making his young daughter work for the Cabal. The Cabal, Reed knew was the name of the Suliban terror organization that was fighting the temporal war. The man wasn't the only obvious parent among the prisoners. There were quite a few Suliban who were less than half the size of the adults. A few moments later the guards sent everyone to their cells, breaking up the confrontation in the process. Ensign Mayweather and Captain Archer collapsed on one of the four bunks while Malcolm paced along the front of the cell.

Malcolm could tell that the encounter had shaken the Captain to his core. Mayweather reached out and touched Archer's arm. "Captain?" he asked.

"This isn't a prison," Archer whispered in horror. "That's what Daniels wanted me to see. It's not a prison, it's an internment camp."

The label brought images to Malcolm's mind from his history lessons of American Indians being herded onto reservations, of refugees from terrible wars in the Middle East being crammed into isolated areas without adequate supplies and Japanese Americans being pulled out of their homes and trucked into hastily built barracks behind chain link fences. Malcolm had never thought that he would be in one but the description fit. If that father had been honest, and Malcolm believed that he had been, then none of the Suliban here was involved in the Cabal.

Archer was sitting in the corner of his bunk staring up at the bunk above him. "All this time I thought that all of them were Cabal. I thought that all of the innocent ones were on their homeworld somewhere. I thought that the Cabal was condoned by their government even if their population didn't know. But they don't have a homeworld anymore. Lord, its no wonder they're fighting so hard. They've lost everything and someone has convinced then that we're going to destroy what little they've got left."

Mayweather was looking a little lost so Malcolm decided to fill him in on what he and the Captain had figured out. "Fairly easy to do," he said over his shoulder. He was still on the lookout for trouble, not so much from the Cabal just now as for the ordinary trouble that was found among any type of prisoners. "When someone has their back to a wall it can be very easy to box them into a corner. A desperate, cornered person is very dangerous. Create a group of such people, aim them at your enemies and you have a very effective weapon that isn't directly traceable to you, especially if you use several someone elses to do the cornering and aiming." The matter of factness in Malcolm's voice made Travis shudder but it caught Archer's attention.

"And someone has done just that," Archer said, his shock turning to anger. "Who is to say that this is the first time or the last it will happen? The Suliban Cabal members were altered so that they could be saboteurs and assassins." Archer got off his bunk and made sure that both of his men were paying close attention. "We know that we are a part of a pivotal point in history. Daniels sent us here to learn this information. I want it branded into your brains gentlemen. I have a feeling that sooner or later we're going to run into others who have met the Cabal's benefactors and I want us to all remember just who the real enemy is. Those people out there aren't our enemies. We will fight them when we must but I refuse to allow some unknown puppet master to turn us into irrational savages that treat innocent children like criminals and killers. Malcolm, find this place's weaknesses."


	37. Escape

All it took was the message from Colonel Grat informing them that the hearing was postponed for Hoshi to pinpoint the origins of his transmission. Once she had pinpointed the origins, it was easy for T'Pol to locate the prison itself. "There they are," T'Pol said as she hi-lighted the prison on the tactical screen. T'Pol had called Trip up from Engineering and Ensign Lewis from the bridge to the situation room so that they could plan how to rescue their people.

"They're counting on their ability to hide the place more than an active security system. I don't see any patrol ships either," Trip muttered as he examined the sensor readings. He tapped one line on the screen in front of him. "If it wasn't for that we'd've never found 'em. If I can just," he reached for the controls for the sensors and began fiddling; doing his best to bypass the Tandar jamming that was in effect, hiding the prison from most advanced spacecraft. With T'Pol helping it didn't take long and soon the three officers were examining clear sensor readings of the structure and population of the prison.

"Suliban!" Lewis hissed. "We have got to get them out of there!"

'This is undoubtedly what Mr. Daniels wished for the Captain to find. As we have no way to determine whether or not he has accomplished the goal of locating the specific information needed. We must contact him,' T'Pol sent. Trip nodded and located three Human life signs. "They're all being held in the same cell. We can transport a communicator in so we can talk to the Captain. The Tandar's jamming fields won't interfere with a transport but I really don't want to risk them changing the frequencies if we're transporting a person." 'That will satisfy Lewis, mostly because it's the truth. That jamming frequency is way too close for my comfort.'

'You are simply too frightened of the transporter process. If it was not for the fact that the Captain may need to stay in the prison for a longer amount of time I would recommend simply transporting them and their shuttle back to the Enterprise.' T'Pol sent with a glance. She was also analyzing the prison structure itself. "A small amount of explosives placed here and here would collapse the wall between the prison and the shipyard where the Captain's shuttle is located."

'I am not scared of the transporter!' Trip shot back at her. 'I'm just far too aware of everything that can go wrong during transport. There still aren't enough safeties built into the systems yet. Transporting when no one is likely to be shooting at us or when it's a last resort to save someone's life are acceptable risks. When we are in a situation that is already risky I'd simply prefer not to add in the additional risk.' T'Pol simply arched her eyebrow. "The area next to that wall looks like some kind of exercise room to me; either that or where they assemble the prisoners for daily counts or something."

"If they could close or block these doors it would prevent reinforcements from reaching the guards," Lewis muttered. "SubCommander, do you think that the Tandar would be incapacitated by flash bangs?"

"What are flash bangs?" T'Pol asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Small charges that produce loud noise and bright light," he explained. "They're thrown at a group to daze and confuse them. For Humans they are a nonfatal weapon, although they can cause some damage to sensitive sensory organs. I wouldn't want to use them against Vulcan's for instance because your sensory organs are far more likely to be damaged beyond repair."

"I believe that their use would be appropriate here," T'Pol said with approval. The fact that Lewis had asked if they would be effective while explaining that he would not wish to cause permanent damage was very much in his favor. She would need to make a note in his records. That sort of thinking needed to be rewarded if Starfleet were to become the sort of institution that Admiral Forrest and Soval believed that it could become.

After that it was all too easy to arrange for the mass escape of the Tandar's prisoners. Archer worked out an agreement with the Suliban prisoners, pointing out the futures their children were likely to have if they stayed. Mayweather proved to them how serious the Humans were about the situation by taking a beating to protect one of the Suliban caught talking with Reed. And Reed, well Malcolm passed out flash bangs like they were a new kind of candy to the adult Suliban. He also taught a few of their Engineers how to make their own before working with a few people who knew how to deal with explosives. Less than eight hours after Trip transported a communicator into their cell and three hours after they began to conspire with the Suliban prisoners, Archer and Reed led the escape.

It was so simple to organize the escape that Malcolm could only come to the conclusion that the Tandar had never dealt with any serious escape attempt before. The Tandar's military was adequate, although capturing unarmed civilians didn't count as a very good measuring stick, but they made lousy jailers. It was far easier to imprison a bunch of unarmed and defeated civilians than it was a determined enemy who had not yet conceded defeat and had an ace up their sleeve. 'And Enterprise is a very large ace,' Malcolm thought to himself as he watched Archer throw the first flash bang.

Archer had waited until all of the prisoners here herded into the exercise room before throwing the first flash bang. Suliban parents grabbed up their children while other Suliban adults launched even more flash bangs to confuse the guards. Reed ran to the outer wall while Mayweather watched Archer's back. Two Suliban ran for the doors leading into the room and another ran for the wall not far from Malcolm. Four small explosions were lost in the noise and confusion but the collapse of the wall was not. The prisoners escaped before the majority of the guards and officials knew what had happened.

"How could you do this?!" Grat screamed at Archer. He didn't dare make a move at the Human as both of the Captain's men were poised to launch weapons at him if he made a move. Grat didn't want to have an up close and personal encounter with whatever weapons the Humans had managed to create. It was bad enough being in the same space as one going off. "They'll all die out there! They'll be hunted down like animals out there!"

"It's better to die free than live as a slave," Archer said simply. "They want their children to live free," with that the three Enterprise officers ran out the breech in the wall to their shuttle.

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"Jesus, a concentration camp," Trip breathed out in horror.

"I do not understand. A place where one goes to improve one's concentration does not fit the parameters of the Tandar prison," T'Pol said in complete confusion. She looked around the conference table at the other officers who were showing various signs of illness.

"No honey, not mental concentration, concentration as in moving a widely scattered population and concentrating them into a small piece of land, usually against their will," Trip said flatly. "The next step after that is usually genocide."

T'Pol's face went totally blank; a look that Trip knew, both from experience with Vulcans in general and from what he was feeling through their bond, meant that T'Pol was controlling her emotions as hard as she could. Horror, shock and nausea were pouring off of her in waves, which only increased his stomach's reaction. It wasn't until T'Pol was struck with the next wave of the feedback loop between her and Trip that she realized what was happening. She threw up a mental shield and apologized. "I beg forgiveness my mate. The actions of the Tandar are most disturbing. The Captain was very wise to help the Suliban to escape. No species should be placed in such a situation based on the actions of a small group of individuals. It is not logical."

Archer nodded. "I know but it is what happens when a group of people let hatred overwhelm them and become everything that they live for. To our sorrow, we've seen it happen enough on Earth. That was how I figured out what was really happening there."

"They're free now and they've got weapons that are nonfatal that they can use against anyone who tries to capture them again. They were very grateful for that. Most of the Suliban had no interest in actually harming anyone, not even the Tandar," Malcolm pointed out. "What we need to do is concentrate on keeping our eyes and ears open for any information about who is behind the Cabal and anyone else they might throw at us."

"You are absolutely right Lieutenant," Dr. Phlox chimed in grimly. "You can't find a cure if you don't know the cause and whomever is behind this could very well infect this entire sector of space."

Archer nodded. "The good news is that I've heard from Daniels. He didn't actually say anything but I saw him and he threw me a salute, so I think we've managed to get the timeline back on track."

"Did he smile?" Trip wanted to know.

"No, but considering what the man's been dealing with for years I'd be surprised if he remembered how," Archer said grimly. Daniels hadn't looked good. He had looked tired and exhausted but somewhat pleased. All Archer knew for sure was that he really didn't want the man's job; being captain of the Enterprise was hard enough for him. "All right everyone, let's get back to work."


	38. Ripples

Title: One Universe Over

Fandom: Star Trek Enterprise

Rating: Teen

Chapter 38

Admiral Forrest walked into a building that at one time he had honestly thought that he would never see the inside of again. The Vulcan Embassy was once more filled with life and activity; a true testament that the lives lost here had not been lost in vain. Humans and Vulcans alike were moving across the lobby; conversing, going over hand held data pads, exchanging small packages, simply going about the business of any embassy anywhere in the galaxy. The only sign that only a short time ago this had been the site of a massacre was a simple flame pot set unobtrusively to one side with a small plaque that simply said in both Vulcan and English, 'The light of logic will never be extinguished'. Some would thing that the Vulcans were being sentimental. Forrest knew better. They were in fact giving the finger to any who would try and force them off of the path of logical enlightenment by killing their colleagues and they were hiding it behind quoting Surak.

Forrest went over to the flame pot and touched the plaque. The quote was said to be Surak's final words to the men who had killed him. 2,000 years later the Vulcan people were still following that path he had died persuading them to follow and were now as stubborn on staying on it as they had once been about staying off of it. 'Stubborn as Missouri mules,' Forrest thought fondly. 'But they really are the best friends Earth can have, at least now that they realize someone had been screwing with their data about Humans and the rest of the universe.'

"Ambassador Soval is available to meet with you now Admiral Forrest," came a young voice from behind him. Forrest turned around and nodded to the young aid. He searched his memory and came up with a name, Sarek. This was one of the survivors of V'Las' attack on the embassy. 'The kid had been away doing a study on young Humans, helping out on a kindergarten field trip, if he remembered correctly' Forrest thought. He had looked a ghostly pale green the last time Forrest had seen him. A thorough look satisfied Forrest that the young man had recovered from his ordeal. He was no longer that terrible shade of pasty green.

"I'm glad to see that you're back and looking well Sarak. Have you been continuing your studies in Human development?" Forrest had been involved in politics for far too long for the grin that was in his mind to ever reach his face but he couldn't help but react that way to the idea of sending a Vulcan to kindergarten. He followed Sarek across the stark lobby, grateful that here he didn't have to dodge the people walking around. In a similar Human establishment nearly everyone would be running and woe the man who wasn't quick on his feet!

Once they were past the receptionist and in the long hallway that led to Soval's office Sarek replied, "I was able to resume my studies without too much disruption to the classroom although I am still uncertain as to why a celebration was held upon my return to work. The children are far too young to understand the situation between our peoples."

Forrest had a flash of a memory of his youngest grandson's birthday party and imagined this young Vulcan smack dab in the middle of it. It was a struggle to keep a lid on his amusement but he managed. "What you need to understand is that Humans are emotional and some of our customs are based on that. Young children are much more concerned and at the same time are completely unconcerned about other people's emotions. If there hadn't been a party for you, and thus an acknowledgement that you had been missed, some of the children would have been upset on your behalf. They would feel that you would have been emotionally hurt if you were not welcomed back because that is what they would feel in your place. Some of the other children would simply have grabbed at any excuse for a party."

Forrest paused and turned to Sarek, realizing that he held a vital key to the young man's studies that Sarek might not be aware of. "Kindergarten is a very vital time in Human emotional development. Up until this age children are often lacking in extended social interaction. They interact with their parents and siblings but quite often kindergarten is their first long term, extended interaction with both their peers and with an authority outside of their families. Some children are naturally empathic, that is aware of other people's emotions. Some children have not developed this awareness. It is something that must be taught before a lack of that awareness can cause something like the deaths that happened here." Forrest turned around and gestured back towards the lobby and it's only ornament, the flame pot.

"How can a lack of awareness of other's emotions cause such a thing?' Sarek asked as they continued down the hallway. He had observed an incident where Miss Angela spoke to Gregory and Justin who had begun to argue over a toy. She too had spoken of the emotions of each child to the other child. Justin had begun to cry and apologize after this talk. Miss Angela had been pleased with Justin's reaction, something that Sarek had found incomprehensible. Perhaps Admiral Forrest's information could clarify the incident.

Forrest looked grimly at Sarek. "Sarek, objects have no emotions. Objects can be destroyed with little to no consequence. Some of the worst killers in Human history looked at people that way. I was all too ready to believe that a Human was behind the deaths here because Vulcans don't have emotions." Forrest knew better but he also knew that it was beyond rude to point that out. "That and your people's interference with our space program have stirred up a great deal of anger in people. I'm simply grateful that V'Las' actions have had the unintended consequence of cooling some of that anger."

They had arrived at Soval's office by this point in their discussion. His door was open and he had overheard the last part of his friend and aid's talk. He was pleased when Sarek realized what his friend was trying to explain. "The spear in the other's heart is your own," Sarek quoted.

"Exactly my student," Soval said as they stepped into his office. "The words may be different but the intent is the same. You must learn to look beyond the differences between species. When you see how they are the same, the differences which once were so vast become increasingly small."

"I will ponder your words Teacher," Sarek said as he bowed, then left.

Finally Forrest allowed himself to chuckle. "I wonder if the kid is in as big a shock as I was when I had that epiphany."

"It is as unsettling as it is wondrous," Soval agreed. The two old friends sat down together on the low bench that sat off to one side of the lavishly appointed office. Vulcan desertscapes were artfully mounted on all of the walls and the furnishings; desk, chairs, bench, bookcases and lamps, were all of Vulcan manufacture. Personally Forrest preferred wood to stone but he'd become used to Vulcan style furniture over the years.

"I just got Archer's report on their encounter with the Tandar. Have you heard from T'Pol?" Forrest's amusement fled as he spoke of the report that had brought him to Soval's office. He had needed the break from the seriousness of the situation but now it was time to get back to work.

"I have," Soval said as grave as Forrest. "Now is not a good time for the Vulcan people to be facing a faceless enemy who uses others to attack. We have just begun to open talks with Andor over the problems caused by V'Las. They are not going well," he admitted. It wouldn't take very much to begin another war between the two races. Andorians were vicious, illogical and V'Las had done his very best for years to push them to the breaking point.

"And right now Earth is just as vulnerable as Vulcan is," Forrest said frustrated. "V'Las' insane takeover attempt has helped tone down the animosity towards Vulcans a bit but we're still two years away from launching Columbia and we've only just begun to lay the keel for the next NX ship after that. We're going to need more ships and crew out there with the experience Jon's crew is getting if we're going to be needed to defend Earth." He thought for a moment. "I don't suppose that Andor would be willing to have a Human mediator? Sometimes it's better to have a neutral third party involved in talks that are likely to blow up at any moment." He had been involved in negotiations that had broken out into fist fights more than once.

"Not one who is Starfleet as they are allies to Vulcan," Soval pointed out. "But perhaps a Human negotiator would be prudent. We do not seem to be making any headway on our own." He didn't want to admit it but it was true. He considered Forrest's situation. "Would Vulcan engineers be helpful to Starfleet in speeding up the construction of your starships? We have them to spare at the moment due to needing to restructure our military."

"That would be very helpful Soval!" Forrest exclaimed. The two friends began to work out a way that they could each help the other solve their problems. Soval thought to himself that it was no wonder the Other had chosen T'Pol and Commander Tucker for a chosen mate bond. Their marriage alliance was already proving to be far more useful than even he had supposed.

The End


End file.
